Islam holds the revered places and sacred sites of all other religions in great respect. The case of the sacred sites of Jews and Christians is even more special. The reason is that Islam views Christianity and Judaism as basically monotheistic beliefs. Although Islam has openly acknowledged the mistakes that, according to it, have crept in the two sets of beliefs, yet it holds the two closer to itself because of the agreement of the three on the three basic beliefs, i.e. Tawheed (belief in only one God), Risala'h (belief in the institution of prophethood) and Aakhirah (belief in the Day of Judgment).

The point that Islam holds the sacred sites of other religions in great respect is evidenced by the fact (as has been reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his compilation of narratives ascribed to the Prophet - Ref. No. 2592) that whenever the Prophet (pbuh) used to send a Muslim army on a war mission, he used to direct his men that they should not go against any agreements that they may have contracted with the enemy; they should not defraud each other in the distribution of the spoils of war; they should not deform the corpses of their dead enemies; they should not kill children; and they should not attack anyone who has confined himself to the place of his worship.

This point is further evidenced by a narrative reported from Omar (ra) - the second Muslim caliph after the Prophet (pbuh) - in which he has said (as recorded in Al-Shawkaani's "Nayl al-Awtaar") that the only reason we do not enter a church is because it has pictures in it (which because of the reverence given to such pictures is considered by Islam to be close to idolatry). Ibn Abbas (ra) - one of the Prophet's companions - is also reported to have offered prayers in churches, except such churches, which had pictures in it (recorded in Al-Shawkaani's "Nayl al-Awtaar").

In consideration of the respect in which Islam holds the revered and sacred places of the non-Muslims, even in later times, the places of worship of the non-Muslims were not destroyed or unduly converted into mosques, except in cases where all the non-Muslims fled from the area or where they themselves allowed such places to be converted into mosques. Nevertheless, it should be realized that conversion of such sacred places into mosques was also a way of showing respect to such places.

Islam wants other religions to respect its sacred sites and places of worship. It is obvious that if Islam is not willing to give any respect to those of other religions, it has then no basis of expecting any respect from them for its own sacred sites and places of worship.

We muslims are not allowed to be intolerant and disrespectful to other religons.