After the hajj: Mecca residents grow hostile to changes in the holy city

UK Guardian ^ | September 14, 2016 | Raya Jalabi

[C19fan]

Millions of hajj pilgrims are preparing to head home, after five days performing ancient rites, revering a God omnipresent in the city of Mecca.

They have stoned figurative devils, they have slept in the world’s largest tent city, they have drunk water from the Zamzam well together: a heaving throng of nearly two million people from all over the world.

Circling the Kaaba, the black cubic epicentre of this sanctuary city, pilgrims would have looked up to see one of the minarets of the Grand Mosque, dwarfed by Abraj al-Bait clocktower, a much-maligned luxury hotel and commercial complex and the second-tallest building in the world.

Next year, they will see the Abraj Kudai, the largest hotel on Earth.

Indeed, though rebuilt throughout the centuries, the minarets – like much of the city – are now relics of a pre-modern Mecca. Cranes and scaffolding now dominate the central skyline, reminders that the city is undergoing a massive state-run expansion to be able to handle ever-increasing numbers of annual pilgrims in the future.

[C19fan]

The Saudis have converted Mecca to Orlando for Muslims. Any thing of historical significance have been razed, some intentional due to Wahhabi fanaticism. The Saudis are pretty open they are using their custodianship of Mecca and Median to make boatloads of money.

[Maceman]

Orlando for Muslims. Sounds like a million laffs.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Sound like a place to test MOAB

[TheTimeOfMan]

Roger that.

Pop their belief system and kill islam as a world evil almost immediately.

[dp0622]

ROFL!!! pots of the day :)

OH NO!! PROGRESS!!

[Lurkinanloomin]

Churchill was right, it’s like rabies, permanently disabling mental illness.

[Don Corleone]

Imagine the smell.

[Robert DeLong]

Mecca

[soycd]

Raze the cult of islam as it is all deplorable.

[shibumi]

Meaningful Change

[Billthedrill]

If you can’t get a pulled pork sammich or a cold beer there, it ain’t civilized. Nuke it.

[353FMG]

What is so holy about Mecca?

[Sybeck1]

Look at the Big Rock on google earth. All around it is slums

[donna]

Gene Pitney - Mecca
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_IXw1UOQJ8

[NormsRevenge]

Hey, when Steve Wynn builds a hotel next to a Marriott and a Holiday INN by the Kaba,, then they should be concerned.

[Dr. Sivana]

Next year, they will see the Abraj Kudai, the largest hotel on Earth.

I can think of TWO ways that President Trump can change that.

[Sasparilla]

Plenty of room for Syrian refugees in that monster size hotel.

[chajin]

Orlando for Muslims

I guess it really is true, It's A Small World After All...

[backwoods-engineer]

Oh, how I wish that Kabaa thing could be destroyed.

[Zuse]

All that and no room for any mooselimb refugees.

For all the insinuations about nukes/Mecca here, keep in mind that Iran(Persia)and Turkey hate the Saudi Royals and likely will take them out, and sooner than most expect. The Gulf States will crumble and a Grand Caliphate can form without Saudi influence.
ISIS is a temporary distraction.
Turkey and Persia can unite (despite Sunni/Shia) against common enemies such as Kurds, then ISIS.
The rest of Islam will rally around the strong horse.