ICC Note: As part of its appeal to the west of promoting a more moderate form of Islam, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will work to preserve pre-Islamic heritage sites. As the keeper of Islam’s holiest cities, this is a highly controversial move for Saudi Arabia. It is unclear what sites Saudi Arabia will begin preserving. However, it is worth noting that the country does have a Christian history pre-dating Islam. No reforms have been made to open the door to religious freedom.
07/11/2018 Saudi Arabia (EuroNews) – Saudi Arabia is preserving pre-Islamic heritage sites, like a date palm oasis from the Stone Age, in a break with the austere strain of Sunni Islam that has dominated the country for decades, as the reclusive kingdom tries to open up.
Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative branch of Islam that emerged in Saudi Arabia some 250 years ago, regards the veneration of objects, especially those predating the Prophet Mohammed’s life in the 7th century, as tantamount to idolatry, and has advocated their neglect or outright destruction.
But under reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has vowed to promote a more moderate form of Islam and loosened strict social rules like a ban on women driving, the kingdom has allocated $1 billion to preserve its heritage.
Many of the cultural areas date back thousands of years and the attention given to them could risk a possible backlash from religious fundamentalists.
“National heritage wasn’t an easy trip, to get people to reflect and go back, especially the antiquities. All the discussions that were about antiquity — this is not Islamic, this is Islamic — this is I think behind us now,” said Prince Sultan bin Salman, head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH).
The 62-year-old royal, a son of the king and an older half-brother of the crown prince, told Reuters in a recent interview about ongoing cooperation with senior Muslim scholars including bimonthly discussions with the Grand Mufti, the kingdom’s top religious figure, about the latest “discoveries”.
Those include Al-Ahsa, one of the world’s largest natural agricultural oases, which became the country’s fifth UNESCO World Heritage site last month.
In addition to fresh- and hot-water springs and vast tracks of date palms, the 10,000 hectare (25,000 acre) region holds archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic period.
Another UNESCO site, Madain Saleh, is a 2,000-year-old city carved into the rocks of the northern desert by the Nabateans, the pre-Islamic Arab civilisation that also built Petra in neighbouring Jordan. It is now the centre of a multi-billion-dollar tourism project the authorities are developing with French support.
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