The Destruction of Mecca

NY Times ^ | September 30, 2014 | Ziauddin Sardar

[C19fan]

WHEN Malcolm X visited Mecca in 1964, he was enchanted. He found the city “as ancient as time itself,” and wrote that the partly constructed extension to the Sacred Mosque “will surpass the architectural beauty of India’s Taj Mahal.”

Fifty years on, no one could possibly describe Mecca as ancient, or associate beauty with Islam’s holiest city. Pilgrims performing the hajj this week will search in vain for Mecca’s history.

The dominant architectural site in the city is not the Sacred Mosque, where the Kaaba, the symbolic focus of Muslims everywhere, is. It is the obnoxious Makkah Royal Clock Tower hotel, which, at 1,972 feet, is among the world’s tallest buildings. It is part of a mammoth development of skyscrapers that includes luxury shopping malls and hotels catering to the superrich. The skyline is no longer dominated by the rugged outline of encircling peaks. Ancient mountains have been flattened. The city is now surrounded by the brutalism of rectangular steel and concrete structures — an amalgam of Disneyland and Las Vegas.

[C19fan]

The Saudis run Mecca like Disney runs their parks. Expansion to handle more and more pilgrims. The author mentions how the Saudis have destroyed much of the cultural heritage of the place especially sites that were important to the early days of Islam. Pilgrims would venerate at the sites associated with Muhammad, his family, and early leaders but the Salafists view that as idolatry so they destroyed most of those sites. The Saudis destroyed a historical Ottoman fort to make room for the gaudy Las Vegas style mega-hotel the article mentions.

[bolobaby]

This title made me soooo hopeful.

[WayneS]

Interesting. Perhaps the Saudis aren’t ALL bad...

[Mrs. Don-o]

A very important article, both in itself and because of the amazingvvfact that the NYT published it. By the bottom of the page it is blaming the Saudis for jihadism, at the very least on the cultural/spiritual level.

Remarkable.

Thank you for posting this.

[cripplecreek]

Funny, no mention of the disgust Malcolm X felt at having been lied to about islam and slavery.

[Joe Boucher]

get ALL these bastards together and Duke Nukem.

[Ray76]

Yeah sure did.

[Paine in the Neck]

I've heard that the only reliable way to save oneself from ebola is to make the hajj and circle the kaaba whilst coughing vigourously and shaking hands, after spitting on them, with one and all.

[wink, wink. nudge, nudge]

[Responsibility2nd]

The house of Khadijah, the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad, has been turned into a block of toilets.

Needs no comment. Speaks for itself.

[RginTN]

Notice no violent protests over muslims destroying their own holy city!

[Vermont Lt]

I wonder how many ebola virus particles are walking around the rock today.

[tflabo]

Malcolm X strayed a little off the ‘great’ Elijah Mohammed’s reservation and got jihadi’d offed himself.

[elcid1970]

Nuke Makkah & the entire house of Islam will collapse like a house of wet cards.

Muzzies will run berserk all over the world for a while, but the world’s majority which is non-Muslim will counterattack & then clean up & dispose of the aftermath, and the planet will be a much better place.

[glorgau]

> Makkah Royal Clock Tower hotel, which, at 1,972 feet...

It would be a shame if somebody flew an airliner into it.

[Rummyfan]

Who the heck knows, as inifdels are not allowed into the city. Secondly, WTFGAS?????? The city, and the black rock, should be turned into glass.

[LibertyOh]

“The Saudis running Mecca like Disney [running] their parks” is actually appropriate in light of the history of Mohammed and Islam. In Mohammed’s time Mecca had a substantial “tourist” industry, based on pagan shrines... as I recall from a Middle East history course I took decades ago. Mohammed had considered Jerusalem and other sites as his center place but essentially made a deal with the leaders in Mecca, insuring that his followers would be obligated to visit their city. Maybe Disney had learned from Mohammed - build a place attracting visitors and then the hotels and other items to extract as much money as possible.

[Organic Panic]

Hajj... AKA A PERFECT change to spread Ebola with all the African Muslims. Multitudes of worldwide travelers. Saudi sanitation. People in close quarters sweating, spitting, coughing, shaking hands, kissing cheeks. What’s to worry about?

[IronJack]

I suggest we help return Mecca to its former glory as Sand Capital of the Barbarian World by turning it into the world’s largest glass parking lot.

[X-spurt]

Holders people in general seem to have Stockholm Syndrome regarding their attachment to muslims in spite of never-ending muslim enslavement of Africans.

[NCLaw441]

Don’t waste a plane, just fly a missile into it.