Saudi Arabia made a number of ‘radical’ breakthroughs to open up the country to tourist destinations in recent years. One of them is about the Kingdom’s decision to build tourist attractions in areas that were historically avoided Nabi Muhammad.
Among the areas that were previously taboo and are now opened as tourist areas, namely Al Ula and Mada’in Saleh.
Since 2019, Saudi Arabia has targeted an investment of up to US$20 billion or equivalent to Rp286 trillion to build a global tourism area in the country.
Launching Reuters, Al Ula is part of a plan to develop a tourist destination to be opened in Saudi Arabia.
Middle East observer from the University of Muhammadiyah Riau (UMRI) Fahmi Salsabila assessed that Saudi Arabia’s plan to open a tourist area in his country is to boost foreign exchange outside the oil and gas sector.
A number of modernization policies and even secularization have begun to be carried out by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS)
“Perhaps MbS’s thought, in my opinion, is to create a kind of tourist area, where many foreign tourists can enter and bring in foreign exchange,” said Fahmi in an interview. CNNIndonesia.com, Wednesday (12/1).
“Even in the area of Al Ula and Mada’in Saleh, areas where in the history of the Arabs themselves rarely (go) there. There is a story when the Prophet Muhammad passed there. He did not want to drink from that area, rushed to leave the area immediately, without turning right and left, “said Fahmi.
Al Ula is an ancient civilization site that has long been isolated and not opened by Saudi Arabia. By opening this site, they hope that Saudi Arabia can become a global tourist destination as well as an effort to diversify their economy.
Al Ula has always been known as a ‘haunted’ area. Many Saudis believe that the area is haunted by evil jinn and should be avoided.
The construction of Al Ula is part of Saudi efforts to preserve pre-Islamic heritage sites to attract non-Muslim tourists to strengthen its national identity and defuse tensions over Sunni Islam that has dominated Saudi Arabia for decades.
Apart from Al Ula, the Saudis also opened Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is a 2,000 year old city carved into desert rocks by the Nabateans (pre-Islamic Arabs who also built Petra in Jordan).
The story of the area believed to be cursed can be traced in the hadith which warns Muslims not to enter the area. The reason is because the area is where the Thamud were once punished by God.
Previously, it was known that Saudi Arabia was currently trying to modernize, one of which was trying to change their financial sources from oil to other sectors.
Some of these modernization steps also include loosening the dress code for women and other socio-cultural rules that generally begin to move into modern culture.
(pwn / blq / bac)
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