Ok, now I’m going to try to reflect on religion in Saudi Arabia. I apologize if I totally mess this up. Understanding culture and figuring out the place religion plays in society is so hard, but at this point I’ve been to many places of religious significance in the world and Saudi left me scratching my head.
Prior to going, what I feel like I’ve been told is that Saudi IS the center of Sunni Islam. Muslims from all over the world are supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life, which means they all come to Saudi. I also have heard so much about Wahhabism, the conservative interpretation of Islam, emanating from Saudi and being pushed around the world.
I must also add that non-Muslims are not allowed to travel to Mecca, so my reflections are from my experiences around the rest of the country and in Medina, the second holiest city where many of the Pilgrims also stop.
So, what I felt/saw… Obviously religion is deeply set there. There are mosques everywhere… but unlike many places I’ve been I did not feel spiritual energy. Maybe this feels more like the US where Christianity clearly is deep within our society in ways we never even think about.
When I go to Turkey I find myself completely moved by call to prayer, wherever I am, as it echoes through the streets. In Saudi, I heard the call sometimes, but definitely not all the time like Turkey. In Turkey, I purposely go to mosques to sit in the courtyards and listen to prayer. They also have volunteers in mosques to welcome visitors and answer questions about Islam. My experience in Saudi was that Islam is everywhere, but I wasn’t able to get close to it. I could walk on the outside of mosques , but didn’t go into them. Possibly that was just me, but other Muslim countries invite non-Muslims in. Mosques were like community centers offering a cool place for a nap or a toilet along with a place to pray. What I thought about was how on a larger level religion is used to control people. So Islam as a force of power vs a spiritual one. I don’t have more words than that, but I’m still mulling it all over and still feeling disappointed by the lack of spiritual energy. I’m telling you, a few minutes in Jerusalem and one instantly knows why all the religions fight and die for control of that land. Or my trip to the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy place in India, left me so blown away that I spent a whole extra day there sitting in silence soaking it in with awe.
Some of this might be that Saudi is just opening to non-Muslims and maybe my tour focused me in other directions and away from Islam purposely. I mean, can one really say they have seen Saudi if they haven’t seen Mecca? And we were rushed by the main mosques in Medina vs being given time to soak in the larger meaning of the scene.
With that caveat, this set of photos will show you some of what I saw. The aspect I loved the most were the pilgrims from all over the world. Saudi may have been closed to outsiders for tourism, but it has always been a crossroads for Muslim pilgrims and Medina and Jeddah are filled with excited people on the most important religious journey of their lives. Jeddah feels much more open to the outside world because of it. I personally love traveling in Muslim countries and have wonderful memories that were sparked when I saw groups from Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and Southern India wandering around Saudi.
In the end, I’m not sure what I saw in basic Saudi society. Conservative dress on women continues after the religious police have been removed from most public life, probably because it’s about culture and tradition more than religion. As I continue to mull it over, I know from history how wrapped up power and privilege is with religion, so maybe that really is what I saw there. And heck, maybe that is totally normal, but somehow with a my preconceptions of Islam in Saudi, I expected more.
