Same as it’s said in the comments, one asks himself what will saudis think of this in…. who can say…. 30 years?, 50? from now, when many things change (I think they are about to change in next decades) and young people asks for the recovery of their real roots. History is a great teacher, and I am sure that future generations of muslims and saudis themselves will complain for the behaviour of these wrongly called “wahabbis” (http://saudiwoman.me/2008/08/28/what-does-being-wahabi-mean/) who spread their “hanabillah-ism” in a way that is familiar to us, westerns (Inquisition, Puritanism,…)
Only a few buildings of the Andalusian arab period were respected in Spain and they are considered jewels, nowadays, and a huge fortune. In my homeland, Valencia, arab heritage is made of food recipes (paella…), towns and villages names (Alzira, Albaida, Russafa, Benicassim, Guadalaviar, Benimuslem, Alcora,…), agriculture traditions… but nothing that could sound “too muslimized” or look too arabic, survived the spanish catholic integrism of those golden XV to XVII centuries.
I am catholic myself. And I lament the huge damage made to my country’s cultural heritage by those who understood my religion in such a way. A lesson to be learnt by many muslims nowadays… and also by many jews, christians, buddhists,… Wrong ways are not an exclusivity.
Now…. read abt what’s happening in a place where people doesn’t move a finger to avoid it, while worry abt women’s right to drive, work, travel… Learn and enjoy.
I will add as well more info, this time about the same process, applied in Medina:
“Muslim silence over the destruction of Mecca and Medina is both disastrous and hypocritical,” says Dr Alawi. “The recent movie about the Prophet Mohamed caused worldwide protests… and yet the destruction of the Prophet’s birthplace, where he prayed and founded Islam has been allowed to continue without any criticism.”
Just imagine right now that any western leader, or even worst, any unknown pastor from a forgotten evangelical community of crazy born-agains stated on internet that all those places and the roots of Islam should be levelled down… geez.
Below is another article which I have recently written for the Muslim Academy site which is run to increase East-West understandings.
If the first church of St. Paul was to be destroyed or the house of Mary, mother of Jesus, were to be razed to the ground there would be a near universal outcry; yet events of a similar scale are happening in Saudi Arabia with hardly any protest whatsoever.
In the last 10 years, there has been the state-sanctioned destruction of 500 historical sites, according to Dr. Irfan al-Alawi, who heads up the Saudi Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. However, there have been only muted protests by most countries as governments of most Islamic countries are wary to criticise in case it hinders the passage of their citizens through Saudi Arabia, whilst western states remain silent for fear their limited access to archaeological sites in the country may be withdrawn altogether.
Sami…
View original post 603 more words
Al-Must'arib (the vocational Mossarab) 