Why Saudi Arabia Has Destroyed 98% Of Mecca Since 1985

I am a Muslim. I don’t worship graves or prophet or anything or anyone other than Allah. But destroying historical sites is plain wrong. The places are respected not because they are worshipped, but because of its historical significance.

“We don't worship graves” Meanwhile India have the largest decorated muslim grave in the world, made by a muslim ruler. And yet no one worship it. Can anyone guess it? - Taj Mahal 🤷🏻‍♂️ You don't need to worship something to protect it from destruction. You can just protect and preserve it because it is part of your history, heritage and culture.

It's about money, some places are built among the most expensive lands in the world, where 1 sqm is sold for 20,000 usd

I’m a practising Muslim and I must say I really appreciate your video and how well you presented these perspectives. Keep marching on brother I love your content.

The video has many problems, it starts off by quoting a London based Islamic Hertiage research center which cannot even be found on the internet, it is some obscure organization. The second quote is from a US based think tank run by a critic of Saudi Arabia, so its likely to be (and is) agenda driven which would question its objectivity. The video relies on only one source, there is no diversity of sources which means that the facts shown in the video are not very reliable. The author also demonstrates his lack of research by claiming that Wahhabis existed 'thousands of years ago' citing raids in 1205 (in reality Wahhabis have only been around since the 18th century), which is very interesting considering the fact that the date is in the AH calender which is about 600 years behind the Gregorian one. Another historical error the author makes is the claim that Saudi Arabia destroyed the house of Khadija, the wife of the Prophet. Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 and the house was destroyed in the 1920s. Lack of knowledge of such common facts further raises questions about the research the author of this video put in. The rest of the video is basically some clichés about the Saudi monarchy with a bunch of political assertions that I am not concerned with, as the entire video is based on the first part which is the historicity, which is itself built on sand. Other Muslims in this comments section have already responded to the rest of the claims made in the video.

Kudos to you for making this video. Even as a sunni Muslim I didn't know it was going on in Saudia Arabia. Keep making controversial topics.

I'm Saudi I was born and raised here, my family comes from a line of Muslims and we've lived in the Arabic peninsula for centuries, why we mainly agree on why they destroyed these "religious sites" because they do not hold any meaning for the religion, realistically in Islam you're not required to go to these places to fulfill your religious duties. Although, as a "tourist" site they would be I guess somewhat interesting for people across the world but we do not want people to use our religion for tourism and fulfillment in fact you can't enter Mecca or Medina unless you're Muslim because there's literally nothing there you can do besides go to these religious holy places and practice our religion, it is not a tourist destination nor it will ever be because that's offensive. In conclusion, you may ask "why did they destroy it anyway?" I could infinitely go on about the reasoning but it's not as many people believe "Wahabism," it is mainly to avoid people from praying to other people, or worshipping them, or thinking they're anywhere near Allah, in fact this isn't new or recent when the Prophet SWT died a lot of people left the religion, not just that but some people actually partially worshipped the Prophet SWT, people were devastated, Abu Bakar as-Siddiq (on of the Prophet's SWT greatest friends) on that day said "if you worship Muhammed SWT then he's dead, but if you worship Allah he's immortal," he mainly said this to make people realize our religion is based on worshipping Allah not anyone else we only follow the Prophet's SWT steps, he's not a god nor a supernatural, he's also human. At the end of the day I don't want to go too long about this, destroying most of them was for the better to avoid any deviations or any people wanting to worship someone else along with Allah as this is forbidden, eventually most of them were only historic sites barely religious or important to us whatsoever, of course I'm definitely sad that they were destroyed but I think it's for the better because I do think people should follow the religion thoroughly.

I’m saudi and i can assure you All of this changed when MBS came to power , he overthrown wahabi and start to promote tourism in the country AlOula city home of prophet Salih is now registered as world heritage site and major tourist destination Love your videos man keep up the good work

I'm a Muslim and found this video is really unbiased. Although to be honest at first I thought the opposite! 💙

As someone who did the pilgrimage I am very grateful for the infrastructure built. I have allot of relatives from mecca, they would tell us how in the old days before all of this infrastructure was built poeple would get trampled, and in one of the pilgrimage stages you need to throw stones at a specific site and many people would get injured or killed at that site. My grandmother had her house confiscated in mecca and she was paid around 2~3 mill SAR ( near 1 mill USD). BTW I like your videos including the ones about Saudi Arabia. However, I think it over the top a little bit. In my personal opinion allot of the ruling class in Saudi Arabia genuinely believe in Islam and many of there action are genuine (someone who truly believe he will be judged by God for all of his action would act in a certain way).

Lots of Saudi Arabia videos brother!! Be careful out there, we don't want to lose you!!

Very interesting video!...I always thought the giant clock tower and the neighboring buildings of the Abraj Al Bait looked out-of-place next to the Great Mosque. Having said that though - I completely understand why these kinds of large projects are necessary to support the millions of pilgrims that visit Mecca each year...but - as you mentioned near the end of the video - I am sure these mega infrastructure projects could've been done in a way that does not "bulldoze" history. I think the problem with how Saudi Arabia is approaching this is that the process is so "absolute" (i.e. there is no going back once these historical sites are gone). I might be wrong about this since the video did not specifically comment on this fact - but I am getting the impression that as these historical sites are paved over, there doesn't seem to be any attempt to officially record what is being lost (even if just through detailed imaging). I can't help but feel that at some time in the future (maybe generations from now), Saudi Arabia might end up regretting the destruction of part of its cultural heritage. There have been more than a few examples in history where - in hindsight - one generation sadly regrets the loss (accidental or deliberate) of cultural/architectural legacies that took place in a previous generation. And while a society can learn from this regret....that doesn't change the fact that what has been lost, has been lost forever.

You've got a rare knack for finding topics that I've never heard about or thought about and making them interesting. Keep it up

I believe that most of the historical sites that have been destroyed are for practical reasons. Statistics can be deceptive; most of the historical buildings destroyed are where the current mosque stands today. One and a half billion people want to go to Mecca only 2 million can be there at a time and Haj happens only once a year. If Saudi Arabia does not expand capacity they’ll be criticized for being exploitive. There is demand for hotels with a view on the mosque, this is what we Muslims dream for and therefore it gets built. All the infrastructure in Mecca is very practical, other religious sites like Medina are better preserved since the necessity is not as profound.

You and Jake tran are actually killing it. Best of luck. Based on your recommendation I viewed economics explained and I must say I am really enjoying learning economics.

As an imam, the Meca is for tourism only, not for prayers. It's a billion dollar business of Saudi Arabia.

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

They destroy historical sites, but they are owned by materialistic way of life to the point they somewhat worship them, how ironic

Great video !

thanks for the great unbiased Video