In various parts of the Islamic world over the past years and decades virulent attacks have targeted Islamic funeral and sacral architecture. These attacks, which have destroyed graves and other artefacts in the Islamic world should not be viewed as random acts of vandalism, but as acts associated with ‘performing one's religious duty’. The requirement to level graves (taswiyat al-qubūr), is attested in the Wahhabi–Salafi tradition and texts, and is quite often invoked by Saudi religious scholars and bodies. According to their belief, mosques, mausoleums and domes containing graves must be levelled to the ground, especially when they are used as places of worship. In the Salafi understanding, worshipping a human being, whether dead or alive, is a kind of polytheism (shirk) and, as such, is tantamount to idolatry. Even the mere fear of idolatry associated with graves, the so-called temptation to worship and venerate graves (fitnat al-qubūr), justifies their removal. The motivation to destroy statues and sculptures also stems from this same fear.

Two seemingly independent phenomena of the contemporary Islamic world demonstrate our central argument. First, let us consider the risks posed by the so-called Islamic State (henceforth ISIS) and its ongoing intentional destruction of erected monuments (tombs, shrines, mosques) and other sites and artefacts, often deemed by them to be polytheistic and to represent a return to the veneration of saints and idolatry. Over the past few years, such incidents have mostly taken place in and around Mosul, al-Raqqa, Nineveh, and Dabiq, although some have also occurred in other areas. These acts of iconoclasm on the part of ISIS indicate a pattern evocative of the Taliban destruction of artefacts in Afghanistan. ISIS seems, in particular, to be systematically targeting aspects of Shiʿi cultural heritage, with Sufi and Yazidi sites also included, in addition to pagan heritage (Palmyra, Nimrod). However, many Sunni monuments have also been targeted, including those of the Prophet Muhammad's Companions.

Second, a number of recent reports have mentioned Saudi eff orts to destroy the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad, which is part of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and remove his remains to an anonymous grave at the nearby al-Baqiʿ cemetery.