Did visiting Madinah as a non-Muslim help me with this? Keep reading to find out! Related Post: Are you visiting Jeddah before Madinah? This really sparked my interest because I had seen the huge Mosque in photos, and an incredible replica in the National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh , and I really wanted to see it for myself!
Plus, after spending a month in Saudi Arabia meeting a lot of Muslims I was feeling more interested in Islam and wanted to learn more. I knew that Mecca was off bounds for tourists and non-muslims. Mecca is the holiest site and it is where Muslims visit to do Umrah and Hajj, and in my opinion, this is a good thing, I think Mecca and the holy Kaaba should be kept for Muslims only. I did a bit of research and although some websites stated that non-muslims cannot go to Medina, these websites seemed pretty old and many more said that non-muslims CAN visit.
So, I decided to travel 6 hours from Jeddah to Medina by bus and see for myself what it was like. Important point — In early , a friend of mine living in Saudi as an expat went to Madina and was questioned by guards near the Masjid about where she is from. This was also whilst Saudi was still closed for international tourism so I guess the guards spotted them more easily.
Firstly, a few blog posts and websites I read said that documentation would be required to enter Madinah and this is needed to show you are a Muslim. Firstly, there is no way you can really prove you are a Muslim apart from proving it in words by reciting the prayer. Going to Madinah soon? I really recommend Mawaddah Altaqwa Hotel , book it here now! I shared the below screenshots from my Google search on my Instagram as I was getting a lot of questions as to how and why I could visit Medina.
I had a few replies back from people, mainly who lived in Medina who confirmed that no, documentation is not checked! This google snippet came up first on my Google Search result from Wikipedia without me even clicking on a link! Twice I was asked by people I met if I was Muslim, once in a shop and once out sightseeing, they were obviously curious and this was a fair enough question, to them I said no, but I am very interested in Islam and want to learn more.
Although this also comes down to the fact that unless you get questioned, no one will know you are not Muslim if you go inside. However, for me, I did not feel confident in going inside Al-Masjid a Nabawi even though I was in Medina with a huge amount of interest and respect for Islam. As for the rest of the city, I felt much more relaxed away from the Mosque and there are plenty of places to visit in Medina in one day there.
This is my full blog post on where I visited on the Medina Tourist Bus and here is a link to book the bus on Get Your Guide , and here is the link to book the bus on Viator. This is very important, even if you are not a Muslim, you need to respect the dress code that all other women in Madinah follow.
I wore a black Abaya which I wear all the time in Saudi Arabia anyway. I also wore a black headscarf. Terrorists are extremely likely to try and carry out attacks in Mecca. Remain vigilant and aware of your surroundings at all times.
Not only in Mecca but in the entire territory of Saudi Arabia, except for credit card frauds, expect virtually no scams. There are some risks for women traveling to Saudi Arabia, especially if they're not respecting their codes of morality, like wearing an abaya at all times. Apart from that, women should apply basic precaution measures. Probably the main concern for travelers in Mecca is the situations they can get themselves into in cases of disrespecting Islamic codes of morality, which are a lot stricter than anyone outside of UAE can imagine.
Despite strict crowd control measures, during the month of the Hajj overcrowding and stampedes are extremely common and represent major hazards, killing dozens of people. Mina, Jamrat and the bridges that lead to them are known to be particularly dangerous, although this is being worked on, and four parallel bridges are built, along with the route that is now unidirectional.
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