Thousands of pilgrims and other visitors come to this country wanting to have a good time and go home with vivid memories, especially the time they spent at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. They would of course like to see these happy moments recorded on film, but they cannot — simply because wherever they go, they encounter signs in a variety of languages telling them that photography is strictly forbidden. Those who take a chance and ignore the warning risk having their film confiscated.
This ban has been in force for decades, and for all those years I have been unable to find a logical explanation for it. Why deny millions of Muslims the pleasure of recording their time in the holy places? It is not as if there are not thousands — even millions — of pictures of both Makkah and Madinah. Where on earth is there a place more revered than the places in those two holy cities? Why then deny visitors to these holy places the pleasure of photographing themselves and their families at the holy sites?
If the ban were based on religious grounds, then it should be applied to many other places; photography is photography, regardless of what you are taking a picture of. If the ban is for security reasons, what harm is there in pilgrims and visitors taking pictures in the vicinity of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque? After all, television cameras and satellite stations beam the very pictures of pilgrims and visitors to viewers all over the world?
The Two Holy Mosques are not military zones where photography should be banned; they are the most safe and secure places on earth. Why do we force people to go to studios to pose for lifeless pictures with replicas of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque as background and deny them the pleasure of taking real pictures, full of life, in the vicinity of the holy sites?
Even if there were fears of breaches, the process could still be organized in a way that prevented violations.
