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Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi called for allowing Christians and Jews to perform pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest place. Speaking following prayers with the presidents of Mali, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mauritania and Senegal on the occasion of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday in Timbuktu, Mali, late on Monday, Qadhafi said "Mecca should be a meeting point to all people except heretics and impure". He said that Christians and Jews are not heretics or impure and "believe in God" and should be allowed to go to pilgrimage in Mecca. Qadhafi challenged Muslim religious leaders to allow US President George W. Bush to enter...

Libyan leader says Eid al-Adha holiday opportunity to bring three main monotheistic religions closer together Roee Nahmias Published: 12.31.06, 15:13 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called to “allow Jews and Christians to visit Mecca and circle the Kaaba (cubical building surrounded by the Sacred Mosque).” These days Muslims all around the world are marking Eid al-Adha, the most important Islamic holiday. Some three million people have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Gaddafi believes the holiday offers a great opportunity to bring the three main monotheistic religions closer together. “Everyone has the right to stand atop Mount Arafat and circle the Kaaba,”...

A Saudi official said Tuesday that the hajj pilgrimage, which usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world, will only see at the most a few thousand pilgrims next month due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The kingdom’s Hajj Minister Muhammad Benten said a “small and very limited” number of people — even as low as just 1,000 from inside the kingdom — will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage to ensure social distancing and crowd control amid the global virus outbreak. “The number, God willing, may be in the thousands. We are...

More than one million pilgrims have already arrived in Saudi Arabia, days before the kingdom prepares to host its mammoth annual Hajj pilgrimage, according to state media. The Hajj, which is expected to draw more than two million pilgrims this year, represents a key rite of passage for Muslims and a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities – as these stunning images show.

In an area that does not exceed 180 meters square, the Kaaba contains three wooden columns which hold the Kaaba's ceiling. The wood used is one of the strongest types of wood and they were put by the prophet's companion Abdullah bin Zubair. They are more than 1,350 years old and are dark brown. The perimeter of each column is around 150 centimeters while the diameter is 44 centimeters. Each column has a squared wooden base. Between these three columns, there is a pillar from which the Kaaba's gifts are suspended. This pillar passes through all three columns and its...

A 16-YEAR-OLD Christian boy faces the death penalty after he was accused of insulting Islam in a Facebook post. The boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a photo of the Kaaba in Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, appeared on his profile. A Muslim man told police the image, which was part of an alleged derogatory post against Islam on the boy’s profile, was insulting and sacrilegious. The black cube-shape is built around an ancient stone at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Locals reportedly claimed the image...

The terrorists disagree. One Islamic State propagandist’s parents said of him: “Our son is a devout Muslim. He had learnt the Quran by heart.” One Malaysian Muslim said that the Qur’an led him to join the Islamic State. A Muslima in the U.S. promoted the Islamic State by quoting the Qur’an.

...after being cut from speech line-up and banned from laying a cloth on boxer's coffin during Muslim ceremony -Recep Tayyip Erdogan had specially flown to Louisville, Kentucky, to say farewell to Ali -But the president’s office said Erdogan left the United States for Turkey late Thursday after attending the prayer ceremony -He was due to speak at today's multi-faith service but lost his slot due to 'lack of program space' -Funeral organizers also 'refused to allow Erdogan to lay a cloth from the Kaaba on Ali’s coffin during the Thursday ceremony' -In addition he wanted the head of Turkey's religious...

"Elagabalus Aureus Sol Invictus" by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.  http://www.cngcoins.com. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons The reverse of the imperial coin depicts horses pulling a wagon on which there is the sacred black stone from the temple of god Elagabalus in Emesa, modern Homs in Syria. The stone was associated in Rome with the cult of Sol Invictus by Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (c. 203 – March 11, 222).  After his death he is commonly known as Caesar Elagabalus according to this his favorite god. The name is the Latinized form of the Syrian Ilāh...

Saudi Arabian authorities have detained an Indian national for posting a controversial photo of Mecca's Grand Mosque juxtaposed with Hindu religious symbols on Facebook. The photo depicts Al Masjid Al Haram mosque as a temple, photoshopped with Hindu symbols over the Kaaba, the holy building at the centre of the mosque, according to Gulf News, which cited a local daily's report on Tuesday.  A Saudi citizen who saw the post brought it to the notice of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the kingdom's religious police. The Indian was detained when he was at an...

Representatives of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) stated that they will ruin the Kaaba after capturing Saudi Arabia. APA reports quoting Turkish media that ISIS wants to take control of Arar city of Saudi Arabia and start operations here. ISIS member Abu Turab Al Mugaddasi said that they would destroy the Kaaba in Mecca: “If Allah wills, we will kill those who worship stones in Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. People go to Mecca to touch the stones, not for Allah.”

A visiting Pakistani-American radio journalist has commended Saudi Arabia for the successful organization of this year’s Haj. Qamar Abbas Jafri of Voice of America’s Urdu Service described Saudi efforts “as a job well done.” Jafri was among 200 international journalists invited by the Ministry of Culture and Information to perform Haj and report on it. “I performed Haj and did a number of reports from the holy sites,” he told Arab News on Friday before heading back to Washington, D.C. “I am really impressed; it is a wonderful experience to be here.” Jafri said this was his second Haj. “I...

Here me out before you conclude. I have a rational argument for what I am proposing. In WWII, to defeat Japan America used psychological warfare as part of the battle. They knew that the ultimate destruction of the Japanese Empire at that time was to defame their leader/god figure. By humiliating him on national television forcing him to claim to the world that he is indeed not god and that he has been defeated allowed Japan to succeed and renew in the future. What we did is why Japan is such a successful country today. Islam is using that exact...

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say. All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque. But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba. Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.

An exhibition by Danish artists in Berlin has been closed because of threats received over a photo deemed to be offensive to Muslims, organizers said on Thursday. The exhibition, which opened in central Berlin on February 22, has been closed to ensure the safety of staff and visitors, Ralf Hartmann from the artists' collective Kunstverein Tiergarten said. The show by Danish art group Surrend is aimed at depicting what they say is the absurdity of extremism in all religions. One of the 21 photos is of the Kaaba – the cube-shaped building inside the Grande Mosque in Mecca – with...

Egyptian loses hand for pickpocketing Saudi officials cut off the right hand of the Egyptian for pocket-picking inside most revered shrine in Mecca according to Islamic laws. In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, the ministry said that Amr Mohammed Zarif Nasr's right hand was cut off from the wrist in the holy city of Mecca according to Islamic laws. The amputation, performed with a sword, is the first such punishment to be carried out in three years in Saudi Arabia. In 2004, Saudi authorities severed the right hand of a Nigerian, also convicted of theft. Islamic...

MINA, Saudi Arabia - Millions of white-robed pilgrims threw pebbles at pillars yesterday, symbolically stoning the devil in an act of purification - a ritual made safer this year because of remodeling that widened bridges and reduced congestion. The construction work was undertaken to prevent the crushes of people that have led to fatal stampedes in the past - such as the ones that killed 1,426 pilgrims in 1990 and 244 last year. The stoning, which lasts several days, is one of the main rituals in the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Across the Muslim world, the faithful marked the...

I enjoy this forum, but lately I've noticed a troubling tendency for posters here to descend into horrible and immature name-calling. Such name-calling, and extremism without reason does nothing but harm our cause. It turns off casual lurkers and readers of this forum. It provides fodder for this forum to be demonized and non-respected elsewhere. Below I provide a few examples. I call on Freepers to stop using such terms voluntarily. If that doesn't work, I call on the moderators to warn, if not censor, posters who use such terms. I realize that Democratic Underground uses even more ridiculous terms...