The Quran

114

وَمَن أَظلَمُ مِمَّن مَنَعَ مَساجِدَ اللَّهِ أَن يُذكَرَ فيهَا اسمُهُ وَسَعىٰ في خَرابِها ۚ أُولٰئِكَ ما كانَ لَهُم أَن يَدخُلوها إِلّا خائِفينَ ۚ لَهُم فِي الدُّنيا خِزيٌ وَلَهُم فِي الآخِرَةِ عَذابٌ عَظيمٌ

Muhammad Asad

Hence, who could be more wicked than those who bar the mention of God's name from [any of] His houses of worship and strive for their ruin, [although] they have no right to enter them save in fear [of God]?¹ For them, in this world, there is ignominy in store; and for them, in the life to come, awesome suffering.

It is one of the fundamental principles of Islam that every religion which has belief in God as its focal point must be accorded full respect, however much one may disagree with its particular tenets. Thus, the Muslims are under an obligation to honour and protect any house of worship dedicated to God, whether it be a mosque or a church or a synagogue (cf. the second paragraph of 22:40); and any attempt to prevent the followers of another faith from worshipping God according to their own lights is condemned by the Qur'an as a sacrilege. A striking illustration of this principle is forthcoming from the Prophet's treatment of the deputation from Christian hijran in the year 10 H. They were given free access to the Prophet's mosque, and with his full consent celebrated their religious rites there, although their adoration of Jesus as "the son of God" and of Mary as "the mother of God" was fundamentally at variance with Islamic beliefs (see Ibn Sa'd I/I, '84 f.).