Saudis risk new Muslim division with proposal to move Mohameds tomb

Second-holiest site in Islam attracts millions of pilgrims each year

ANDREW JOHNSON
MONDAY 01 SEPTEMBER 2014
One of Islams most revered holy sites the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed could be destroyed and his
body removed to an anonymous grave under plans which threaten to SPARKdiscord across the Muslim
world.
The controversial proposals are part of a
consultation document by a leading Saudi academic
which has been circulated among the supervisors of al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, where the
remains of the Prophet are housed under the Green Dome, visited by millions of pilgrims and
VENERATED as Islams second-holiest site. The formal custodian of the mosque is Saudi Arabias ageing
monarch King Abdullah.
The plans, brought to LIGHT by another Saudi academic who has exposed and criticised the
destruction of holy places and artefacts in Mecca the holiest site in the Muslim world call for the
destruction of chambers around the Prophets grave which are particularly venerated by Shia Muslims.
The 61-page document also calls for the removal of Mohameds remains to the nearby al-Baqi cemetery,
where they would be interred anonymously.
There is no suggestion that any decision has been taken to act upon the plans. The Saudi government has in

the past insisted that it treats any changes to Islams holiest sites with the utmost seriousness.
READ MORE: ATTACK ON MOHAMED'S TOMB COULD STIR UP SECTARIAN HATRED
But such is the importance of the mosque to both Sunni and Shia Muslims that Dr Irfan al-Alawi
warned that any attempt to carry out the work could SPARK unrest. It also runs the risk of inflaming
sectarian tensions between the two branches of Islam, already running perilously high due to the conflicts
in Syria and Iraq.
Hardline Saudi clerics have long preached that the
countrys strict Wahhabi INTERPRETATION of
Islam an offshoot of the Sunni tradition prohibits the worship of any object or saint, a practice
considered shirq or idolatrous.
Dr Alawi, director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, told The Independent: People visit the
chambers, which are the rooms where the Prophets family lived, and turn towards the BURIAL chamber to
pray.
Now they want to prevent pilgrims from attending and venerating the tomb because they believe this is
shirq, or idolatry. But the only way they can stop people visiting the Prophet is to get him out and into the
cemetery.
For centuries Muslim pilgrims have made their way to Mecca in order to visit the Kaaba a black granite
cubed building said to be built by Abraham, around which al-Masjid al-Haram, or the Grand Mosque, is
built, and towards which every Muslim faces when they pray.
This pilgrimage, or HAJJ, is a religious duty that has to be carried out at least once in a lifetime.
Many go on to make their way to the nearby city of Medina to pay their respects at the Prophets tomb.
Muslims
waiting to
pray at
the tomb
of the
Prophet
at alMasjid alNabawi in
Medina
(Reuters)
AlNabawi
mosque
around the
tomb has
been
expanded
by
generations of Arabian rulers, particularly the Ottomans. It includes hand-painted calligraphy documenting
details of the Prophets life and his family. Dr Alawi said the plans also call for these to be destroyed as
well as the Green Dome which covers the Prophets tomb.
The Prophet is VENERATED by both branches of
Islam, Sunni and Shia. The strict Wahhabi sect is a
branch of the Sunni faith, however, and removing the Prophet could further inflame tensions between the
two groups .
The current crisis in Iraq has been blamed on the Shia former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis

sectarianism, which alienated the Sunni, leading to the uprising. Isis, also known as Islamic State, which
holds swathes of Iraq and Syria, and which murdered the American journalist James Foley, is a Sunni
organisation.
Mainstream Sunni Muslims would be just as aghast at any desecration of the tomb as the Shia, Dr Alawi
said.
The Independent has previously revealed how the multibillion-pound expansion of the Grand Mosque
has, according to the Washington-based Gulf Institute, led to the destruction of up to 95 per cent of
Meccas millennium-old buildings. They have been replaced with LUXURY HOTELS, apartments and
shopping malls.
King Abdullah has appointed the prominent Wahhabi cleric and imam of the Grand Mosque, Abdul
Rahman al-Sudais, to oversee the expansion project necessary to cope with the huge number of pilgrims
who now visit each year.
Dr Alawi says the consultation document for the al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, by the leading Saudi
academic Dr Ali bin Abdulaziz al-Shabal of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, has
been circulated to the Committee of the Presidency of the Two Mosques.
Several pages of the consultation document have
just been published in the presidencys journal. They
call for the destruction of the rooms surrounding the tomb used by the Prophets wives and daughters, and
VENERATED by the Shia because of their association with his youngest daughter, Fatima.
The document also calls for the Green Dome, which covers the tomb and these living quarters, to be
removed, and the ultimate removal of the Prophets body to a nearby cemetery.
The al-Baqi cemetery already contains the bodies of many of the Prophets family, including his father
who was removed there in the 1970s, Dr Alawi said. In 1924 all the GRAVE MARKERSwere removed, so
pilgrims would not know who was buried there, and so be unable to pray to them.
The Prophet would be anonymous, Dr Alawi
added. Everything around the Prophets mosque
has already been destroyed. It is surrounded by bulldozers. Once theyve removed everything they can
move towards the mosque. The imam is likely to say there is a need to expand the mosque and do it that
way, while the worlds eyes are on Iraq and Syria. The Prophet Mohameds grave is venerated by the
mainstream Sunni, who would never do it. It is just as important for the Shia too, who VENERATE the
Prophets daughter, Fatima.
Im sure there will be SHOCK across the Muslim
world at these revelations. It will cause outrage.
The Independent was unable to contact the Saudi Arabian embassy, but it said in a statement last year: The
development of the Holy Mosque of Makkah al-Mukarramah [Mecca] is an extremely important subject
and one which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as custodian of the two holy mosques, takes
with the utmost seriousness. This role is at the heart of the principles upon which Saudi Arabia is founded.