RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is preserving pre-Islamic heritage sites, like a date palm oasis from the Stone Age, in a break with the austere strain of Sunni Islam that has dominated the country for decades, as the reclusive kingdom tries to open up.
Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative branch of Islam that emerged in Saudi Arabia some 250 years ago, regards the veneration of objects, especially those predating the Prophet Mohammed's life in the 7th century, as tantamount to idolatry, and has advocated their neglect or outright destruction.