What are the thoughts on this?
al-Sadr uses the shrine to Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib in Najaf, is this acceptable? Could the Dome of the Rock or Mecca to be used as militant bases?
I don’t know if it is allowed or not but I’d hate to see these holy sites getting hurt or destroyed. 
Re: Using Holy Sites as Militant Bases
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
What are the thoughts on this?
al-Sadr uses the shrine to Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib in Najaf, is this acceptable? Could the Dome of the Rock or Mecca to be used as militant bases?
[/QUOTE]
In 1979, 500 militants seized control of and fortified themselves in the Holy Mosque at Mecca.
The Saudi security forces besieged and attacked the mosque to regain control, killing around 300 of the militants.
I guess the main issue would be the religious identity of the troops trying to deal with the militants.
It would not provoke as much of an outrage should only Muslims be involved in the fighting and the holy site gets damaged, as it would if non-mulims were involved.
The reason being that damage done by non-muslims would be strongly suspected as being a deliberate occurence, whereas damage done by Muslims would be seen as accidental. Contrast, for instance, the outraged when Americans distroyed the minaret of a mosque in Fallujah, where Muslims belived this was a deliberate act of vandalism against Islam, with the complete lack of reaction to the damage done to mosques during the intra-Muslim fighting in Afghanistan in the 1990s - because no one will believe that Muslims would willingly damage mosques.