2. The Muslim Terrorists Who Destroyed Islam’s Holiest Sites
From their base in eastern Arabia and Bahrain, the Qarmatians terrorized the Middle East for generations. They pillaged their neighbors, engaged in widespread banditry, massacred pilgrims by the tens of thousands, and seized and sacked Mecca. The Qarmatians believed that pilgrimage to Mecca was a superstition, so they sent raiding parties to interdict the pilgrimage routes. In one such raid in 906, they massacred over 20,000 pilgrims. In 930, as part of a millenarian quest to speed up and usher in the End of Days, the Qarmatians seized Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest cities, and sacked both. When they sacked Mecca, the Qarmatians slaughtered over 30,000 pilgrims, desecrated religious sites, and ritually and literally polluted the holy Well of Zamzam by stuffing it full with their victims’ corpses. They also seized the Black Stone, a meteorite rock affixed to the Kaaba and deemed holy by Muslims.
