Veneration - Islam

Islam

Veneration of saints in Islam is especially common in the Sufi branch, though there are many local customs in different parts of the world, especially in southeast Asia, where saints are honored and venerated. Islam has no formal process of canonization—it is typically done through popular acclaim and local custom. Muslim saints who are venerated include the women Sufi mystic Rabia Basri, and Sufi saints Habib al-Ajami, and Saint Nuri.

Many Islamic sects condemn veneration of icons associated with saints. Destruction of historical Islamic sites, which are holy to Shi'ite Muslims, in Saudi Arabia were instigated by Wahhabis and the Saudi royal family, most notably the shrines and tombs in the Al-Baqi' cemetery in 1925. In 2001, the 6th century monumental statues called the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban. In 2006, a bombing by al-Qaeda resulted in the destruction of the Al-Askari Mosque in Iraq. In July 2012 Ansar Dine, a strict Islamic sect, demolished mausoleums of the saints in Timbuktu, the "City of 333 (Sufi) Saints" and desecrated the Sidi Yahya Mosque. In August 2012, Salafi zealots bulldozed several Sufi sites in and near Tripoli