(WASHINGTON DC - April 28, 2009) The Islamic Information Center strongly condemns the actions of the Saudi Arabian government to further limit religious freedoms within the country by cordoning off gravesites of Prophet Muhammad's grandchildren in the Holy Jannatul Baqi cemetery. The Saudi government has erected unnecessary visual barriers around the gravesites of several generations of the Prophet's grandchildren, most specifically Imam Hasan ibn Ali, Imam Ali ibn Husain, Imam Muhammad Baqir ibn Ali, and Imam Jafer Sadiq ibn Muhammad. The visual barriers are in addition to the already unnecessary physical barriers used to separate pilgrims from the gravesites.
These individuals, in addition to being revered by hundreds of millions of Muslims, play an important role in humanity's history by pushing for authentic, peaceful, and pragmatic values as taught by their great grandfather Prophet Muhammad. In response, they were successively assassinated by various monarchial tyrants bent on pursuing a radical and un-Islamic agenda. These gravesites are more than one thousand years old, and have been visited by Muslims for nearly a dozen centuries without complaint - that is, until this week.
The Saudi government subscribes to an extreme sect, named after its founder Ibn Abdul Wahab from the late 1800s, that forbids normal visits to gravesites, prayers for the dead, or even letting women come to graveyards. Despite the fact that this sect is less than 10% of the entire world's Muslim population, they impose their tyrannical beliefs over the remaining 90% of Muslims via such measures. This is done by maintaining a tight grip on forms of Islamic worship in the Holy cities of Medina, where the Jannatul Baqi graveyard is located, and Makkah, both in Saudi Arabia.
Grand Ayatollah Safi Gulpaygani has issued a statement calling the Saudi government's construction of the barrier a betrayal to the history of Islam.
"Such moves will lead to full annihilation of the historic monuments of the Islamic history, and the future generations would thus be left with no heritage as reference.
Committing such moves is anti-cultural. How can we claim ten thousand years from now that we had once had registered records of our Islamic civilization?
Unfortunately, the Saudi government [inexplicably] ... resorts to annihilation of any sign that is left from the [days of Prophet Muhammad]."
IIC calls for a nationwide week of protests to the Saudi Embassy in Washington D.C. This can be done by writing letters of protest to the Saudi Embassy, emailing them at
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, or more effectively calling them at the number below. Please take a moment to simply call the Embassy, express that you are a United States citizen, and that as an American you find these measures to be contradictory to common sense, and that these barriers should be removed immediately and permanently.
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Commercial Office: (202) 337-4088
