How about Respecting our History? (2)

                                          

The Ajyad (Ecyad) Fortress stood proud on bulbul mountain in Mecca since 1781. Its purpose was to protect the holy city from invaders. As a city landmark, the Ajyad fort was a destination by itself. The image of the castle is still imprinted in my memory since my early childhood. Eventually, however, I came to realize that there is no room for pride in the world that I live in and eventually the invaders will come to the castle’s gates. And they did turn up in 2002 with their dynamites and bulldozers and leveled both the castle and the mountain that supported it. Although the destruction of common Islamic historical sites represented a wahhabi pattern, not much fury was generated in the Muslim world (except for Turkey which accused the Saudi government of performing a Taliban like cultural vandalism).

In response to Turkey’s accusations, the Saudi government gave the usual excuses: we want to build new towers, we want to offer the pilgrims more accommodations, we want to develop and update the city, blah blah. I am asking the government, nevertheless, to tell me how many of those visitors can afford to stay in one of the newly built luxury rooms or afford a meal in any of its restaurants? In addition to the real reasons that I mentioned before, here are a couple of other explanations why this is happening:

1-      To eliminate the Idea of Moderate Islam. As put by Eric in Classical Values: “They [wahabbis] hate the idea that their religious places were once ruled by forces of moderate Islam.” So, the solution is to eradicate all traces of that past.

2-      To erase the Ottoman past from the Arabian Peninsula. The Wahhabis are even going to great lengths to eliminate Ottoman influence from existing historical architecture. The mosques of the Balkans, including Gazi Husrevbeg Mosque in Sarajevo are witness to that. And the idea of having an Ottoman era castle standing as a historical witness in their own backyard is unbearable. Historians actually point out that the castle was built by the ruling Ottomans to keep the Wahhabi sect out of Mecca. There you go!

So, now, who is going to grace the former location of the castle? Do I need to guess? No, this one should be quite easy: It is nothing other than the King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project. Off course, dumb me?! Allegedly, all the proceedings from this project will be used to support the development of the holy city. If so, please make all the financial information public for my eyes to see (You know the law says that nonprofit finances should always be public).

You might ask: Why mention an old castle that once existed and was destroyed in 2002? (1) Because Muslims are rioting about a cartoon that only exposes fears and prejudices rather than being really mad at what matters: The Islamic history that should be preserved and studied. (2) Because the culture of destruction is continuing: The golden dome of the  Samarra mosque no longer exists.

                                          

Comments

[A Turkish Anti-Wahhabist]

Those assholes!!! I hate them with a passion. Dumb, ignorant, and they are ruling the Saudi version of Islam. That's is definitely a recipe for disaster: the Wahhabis and the Royals........ and the regular folk must suffer.........

[KoldKadavr]

"God blessa yoo," sez Father Sarducci.

[The Rambling Taoist]

The really sad thing here is that -- at some juncture -- people will want to return to their traditional roots and they will be gone! So, they'll have to recreate them. A recreation simply doesn't have the same emotional impact as the original.

[Tahoma Activist]

In Saudi Arabia, it appears that the royal family can destroy ancient cultural relics without opposition. In Iraq, however, I believe that the destruction of such holy sites is a deliberate strategy by American and British mercenaries to achieve essentially the same end. I don't claim to know who blew up the Al-Askariya Shrine, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Sunni insurgents. Reports I've read state that several men, including one in uniform, entered the shrine with the assistance of the guards, planted explosives, and then left.

Could it be that the forces of my own government are conducting "false flag" operations to destroy all trace of the ancient civilization of historical Iraq? And the other benefit to such actions, of course, would be further sectarian violence which benefits the huge Western war profiteering corporations and their allies in the Western intelligence services, who love death and destruction.

Would you look into this and get back to me?

www.apctahoma.blogspot.com

[clemens]

Good post. I had heard about the destruction of the fort and knew my Turkish friends were upset. I had also heard that the site supposed to be Muhammad's house was either to be destroyed or covered up, lest it become some type of shrine. Thanks for the update. It is very sad.
Best wishes,
Clemens

[a former resident of riyadh]

This is so sad. When I lived in Riyadh we enjoyed going to the old town of Daryiah (sp???) -- Hardly ever saw any Saudis, mostly it was other ex-pat families learning about local history and enjoying the old architecture. It was very very badly maintained by whatever ministry was in charge. I remember telling a few Saudi women that I had been there and their reaction was like, why would you want to go there?

That said, my heart went into the ground when I heard about the looting of the museam in Baghdad, and the continued desecration of ancient sites their is a human tragedy of a scale I never thought I would see in my life time (we ALl have historical roots in ancient mesopotamia; writing, mathematics, astronomy, architecture ... not to mention religion and science).