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Pilgrim Non Grata in Mecca (Maureen Dowd feels excluded in Saudi Arabia)
New York Times ^ | March 10, 2010 | Maureen Dowd

Posted on 03/10/2010 2:43:09 AM PST by reaganaut1

I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven’s gate.

Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century British adventurer, translator of “The Arabian Nights” and the “Kama Sutra” and self-described “amateur barbarian,” was an illicit pilgrim to the sacred black granite cube. He wore Arab garb and infiltrated the holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba, the “center of the Earth,” as he called it, in the Saudi city where the Prophet Muhammad was born.

But in the end, it seemed disrespectful, not to mention dangerous.

So on my odyssey to Saudi Arabia, I tried to learn about the religion that smashed into the American consciousness on 9/11 in a less sneaky way. And that’s when the paradox sunk in: It was nearly impossible for me to experience Islam in the cradle of Islam.

You don’t have to be a Catholic to go to the Vatican. You don’t have to be Jewish to go to the Western Wall (although if you’re a woman, you’re squeezed into a slice of it at the side). You don’t have to be Buddhist to hear the Dalai Lama speak — and have your picture snapped with him afterward.

A friend who often travels to Saudi Arabia for business said he thought that Medina, the site of Muhammad’s tomb, was beginning to “loosen up” for non-Muslims. (As the second holiest city in Islam, maybe they needed to try harder.) But the Saudis nixed a trip there.

I assumed I at least could go to a mosque at prayer time, as long as I wore an abaya and hijab, took off my shoes, and stayed in the back in a cramped, segregated women’s section.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: dowd; idiotalert; islam; learningcurve; maureendowd; saudiarabia; stuckonstupid
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To: raybbr

Is that Dowd? She’s kinda cute.


21 posted on 03/10/2010 4:30:50 AM PST by dljordan (Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: reaganaut1
I did not realize the extent of Dowd's ignorance of reality until reading this piece. The cluelessness is so thick that the whole column could easily be passed off as parody.

Mr. niteowl77

22 posted on 03/10/2010 4:31:10 AM PST by niteowl77 (You wanted him, and now you have got him. I say, "Good day to you," America.)
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To: reaganaut1

Keep her... give her a real closely cropped hairdo... just below the ears.

LLS


23 posted on 03/10/2010 4:33:57 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (Wolverine)
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To: bergmeid

Obama is no Muzzie either. He’s a godless socialist. After all, he hung around with Communists for much of his life and they tend to be atheist.


24 posted on 03/10/2010 4:40:16 AM PST by Jacob Kell
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To: reaganaut1

Welcome to Reality, Maureen. Sit in the back, please.


25 posted on 03/10/2010 4:46:10 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Haiku Guy

The thing that stuns me is that this is an op-ed in the NYT! Dodd’s contributions are not opposite of that rag’s editorials.


26 posted on 03/10/2010 4:46:17 AM PST by chopperman
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To: reaganaut1
MoDo attempts to climb MoMo's mountain and ends up at the Imax ...


27 posted on 03/10/2010 4:47:00 AM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Jacob Kell
Obie is a Marxist Muslim - both cults embrace the same end goals. Add the fact he's a racist & anti-semite, America is under attack from within and has limited options remaining before falling into the black abyss of communism/islam.

"From my cold dead hands....."

Wolverines!

28 posted on 03/10/2010 4:50:05 AM PST by newfreep (Palin/DeMint 2012 - Bolton: Secy of State)
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To: dljordan

um no...Catherine Zeta Jones


29 posted on 03/10/2010 4:50:26 AM PST by xp38
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To: reaganaut1
Mo has obviously never seen images like this on the internet or anywhere else on her Chardonnay Circuit. According to the caption of this photo if you continue on you meet a police checkpoint further down the road.


30 posted on 03/10/2010 4:54:16 AM PST by xp38
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To: chopperman
The thing that stuns me is that this is an op-ed in the NYT! Dodd’s contributions are not opposite of that rag’s editorials.

Dowd fits right in at the New York Times...

After all, it's been nine years. It's time to reconsider Islam and the whole 9/11 thing, in light of our modern understanding and recent events, don'tcha know... Surely it was all our fault, at the end of the day... If only we had not provoked them!

31 posted on 03/10/2010 4:57:47 AM PST by Haiku Guy (If you have a right / To the service I provide / I must be your slave.)
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To: raybbr

Not guilty. No way. No how.


32 posted on 03/10/2010 5:00:12 AM PST by naturalized
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To: reaganaut1

Stupid cow. She finds it offensive to be “consigned” to a portion of the Western Wall, but finds no problem in sitting in a “segregated” part of a mosque. And dressed according to Mohammedan law.

I’m sure that the Mohammedan invaders will treat her more kindly for her willingness to accept them - in a harem!


33 posted on 03/10/2010 5:24:26 AM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: xp38

:)


34 posted on 03/10/2010 5:38:29 AM PST by dljordan (Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: reaganaut1

35 posted on 03/10/2010 5:45:39 AM PST by Apparatchik (If you find yourself in a confusing situation, simply laugh knowingly and walk away - Jim Ignatowski)
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To: whitedog57

Could we revoke her passport and leave her in Saudi?

She would make a Sultan a good wife. (after the ritual numerous beatings)


36 posted on 03/10/2010 8:42:31 AM PST by CPT Clay (Pick up your weapon and follow me.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
“This woman is a complete and utter moron.” And that is why they keep paying her and printing her drivel.
37 posted on 03/10/2010 8:54:42 AM PST by Pecos
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To: reaganaut1

Maybe now she has glimpsed the tip of the shadow of the towering monolith of violent cultural imperialism that is Islam.


38 posted on 03/10/2010 9:35:36 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (I miss having a First LADY.)
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To: xp38

Living in Saudi.... yes, infidels have to take the mecca bypass.


39 posted on 03/10/2010 12:40:05 PM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: CPT Clay
She would make a Sultan a good wife. (after the ritual numerous beatings)

She's way too old and has way too much mileage to get such a gig. She could be a housemaid who is available to service the old perv when one of his teen brides is not though...

40 posted on 03/10/2010 12:42:35 PM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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