Posted on 08/12/2007 11:09:37 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
MECCA, Saudi Arabia - These days it‘s easier to find a Cinnabon in Mecca than the house where the Prophet Muhammad was born.
As a result, some complain that the kingdom‘s Islamic austerity and oil-stoked capitalism are robbing this city of its history.
Abraj al-Bait is a complex of seven towers, some of them still under construction, rising only yards from the Kaaba, the cube-like black shrine at the center of Muslim worship in Mecca. "Be a neighbor to the Prophet," promises an Arabic-language newspaper ad for apartments there.
Saudi Arabia boasts that Abraj al-Bait — Arabic for "Towers of the House," referring to the Kaaba‘s nickname, "the house of God" — will be the largest building in the world in terms of floor space. Developers have said the completed building will total 15.6 million square feet — more than twice the floor space of the Pentagon, the largest in the United States.
The building boom is in some cases destroying Mecca‘s historic heritage, not just overshadowing it. In 2002, Saudi authorities tore down a 200-year-old fort built by the city‘s then-rulers, the Ottomans, on a hill overlooking the Kaaba to build a multi-million-dollar housing complex for pilgrims.
"Obviously, this is an exaggerated interpretation. But unfortunately, it is favored among officials," said Anwar Eshky, a Saudi analyst and head of a Jiddah-based research center.
Other sites disappeared long ago, as Saudi authorities expanded the Grand Mosque around the Kaaba in the 1980s. The house of Khadija, Muhammad‘s first wife, where Muslims believe he received some of the first revelations of the Quran, was lost under the construction, as was the Dar al-Arqam, the first Islamic school, where Muhammad taught.
In Medina, 250 miles north of Mecca, Muhammad‘s tomb is the only shrine to have survived the Wahhabis, and a monumental mosque has been built around it. But religious police bar visitors from praying in the tomb chamber or touching the silver cage around it.
Outside the Prophet‘s Mosque, Wahhabis have destroyed the Baqi, a large cemetery where tombs of several of the Prophet‘s wives, daughters, sons and as many as six grandsons and Shiite saints were once located. Grave markers at the site have been bulldozed away, and religious police open the site only once a day to let in male pilgrims. The visitors are prevented from praying.
Several Islamic groups, such as the U.K.-based Islamic Heritage and Research Foundation and the U.S- based Institute for Gulf Affairs, are campaigning to restore ancient sites. Khaled Azab, an Egyptian expert on Islamic heritage at the Bibliotheca Alexandria, suggests that the Saudi government should bring in UNESCO to help.
But after years of campaigning, Angawi is on the verge of giving up.
"I have been saying this for 35 years but nobody listens," he said. "It is becoming hopeless case."
Gee, how tragic. Such a stupid, obsessed culture.
“year-round human shields” crosses my mind here.
I’m all for redoing Meccas skyline,
Melt it and make it all glow in the dark.
The article is by SALAH NASRAWI, who we must assume is muslim, since only muslims are allowed in Mecca, also the lack of quotes and ever sources, while full of opinion shows that lazy opinioned driven journalism is just as prevalent no matter the background of the writer....who writes for the associated press.
Or kill it slow with Motel 6, Denny’s and Ponderosa’s everywhere like us.
Muslims are too stupid to even try to perserve their history,why am I not surprized?
Leave a corridor open to Mecca, but take down that damned Saudi government and secure it’s oilfields.
These days it‘s easier to find a Cinnabon in Mecca than the house where the Prophet Muhammad was born(?)
But where can you get a good cold beer, that’s the real question!
Although the religious hardliners have reasons for wanting to destroy historic landmarks in Mecca, it sounds the rush may also be due to people with more pecuniary motives involving plans for the freed-up real estate.
“Gooood Morning Mecca.
The weather today should be bright and sunny.
Temperatures are expected to reach 2,100,000 degrees with occasional bright orange mushroom clouds.”
The best Cinnabons are made with lard.
Why do the Wahabi’s destroy historical Islamic sites?
That reminds me. I wonder if the pig balloon from Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album cover is still around.
Interesting article link you posted: “The problem is Wahabbism...” Thanks, wideminded.
What would the 79 virgins say.
They destroy those sites to prevent idolatry.
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