content: It's sacred because they believe the tops of all mountains are sacred. Despite most Hawaiians being Christian, a large section of the people who are protesting believe that by building the telescopes, we are angering the ancient gods. Last year there was a lava flow that got really close to destroying a small town(really small), and the whole time these activists where screaming about how we dun goofed now and were going to see the wrath of Pele. Of course, nobody died and I think the only man made building lost was a shed, but in their minds it was a clear warning from the ancient Gods to not build the telescope. Oh, also this eruption came from a volcano that has been erupting for the last 40 years and everybody already knew the town was in danger for decades.