Article

2005-07-13 Arabia

Developers and purists erase Mecca's history

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Posted by tu3031 2005-07-13 08:50|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 They must have heard about that "Eminent Domain" ruling in the Supreme Court.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2005-07-13 10:06|| 2005-07-13 10:06|| Front Page Top

#2 ROFL!

Ah, this is just precious. The Hardcores vs the Touchy-Feelys. We can sympathize a bit.

Now if they were only aware of the infidels running around the Empty Quater in their 4WDs finding all those ancient artifacts - and shipping them home pronto... Remember, they're VERY concerned about what comes IN, but they don't pay much attention to what goes OUT, lol! If they knew, well, they'd pop another vein or two, lol! I'll have to send this to some folks...

Posted by .com 2005-07-13 10:14|| 2005-07-13 10:14|| Front Page Top

#3 It cited a 1994 edict by the kingdom's senior council of religious scholars which ruled that preserving historical buildings might lead to polytheism.

So we can go ahead and knock down the Al'Aqsa Mosque?

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-07-13 10:19|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-07-13 10:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Welcome to Meccalandâ¢! Here have a Prophetpop...

Posted by mojo">mojo 2005-07-13 10:40|| 2005-07-13 10:40|| Front Page Top

#5 Let's see here:
preservation of old buildings, especially those related to the prophet: BAD
the Kaaba -- an ancient structure that more than 4 million Muslims visit each year as part of haj and umra pilgrimages: GOOD
Oh I see, it's the kaaba itself that leads to polytheism and idolatry...

Posted by Spot">Spot 2005-07-13 10:46|| 2005-07-13 10:46|| Front Page Top

#6 They paved Paradies and put up a parking lot

Posted by Joni Mitchell 2005-07-13 11:48|| 2005-07-13 11:48|| Front Page Top

#7 "It don't say 'Islamic' until we say it sez 'Islamic'. Capische?"

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-07-13 11:57|| 2005-07-13 11:57|| Front Page Top

#8 Don't Moslems get worked up if a building is taller than the town's minaret? How dare they build high-rise towers in Mecca?

Posted by Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-07-13 11:58|| 2005-07-13 11:58|| Front Page Top

#9 Am I reading this right? The 20th century and the 12th century are about to clash in Mecca? Can we have popcorn?

Posted by Bobby 2005-07-13 12:42|| 2005-07-13 12:42|| Front Page Top

#10 Popcorn it is, extra butter anyone?

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-07-13 13:47|| 2005-07-13 13:47|| Front Page Top

#11 If youre going to establish butter popping outlet, a non-historical use in this district, you need to first submit your plans to this council, to make sure that no alterations will be made that will infringe on the historical charecter and appearance of the neighborhood

Posted by Rantburg national historic district preservation council 2005-07-13 13:55|| 2005-07-13 13:55|| Front Page Top

#12 I wonder if they'll use Cat 'dozers to destroy The Profit's old haunts...

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-07-13 18:25|| 2005-07-13 18:25|| Front Page Top

#13 Here is an interesting article on the same subject.
The money quote:
"But that's only half the story. Crusade-besotted pan-Arab pan-Muslims, who were so outraged over the (non)events at the Baghdad Museum during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, should ask themselves: How much respect has the Wahhabi sect of Islam shown to Muslim monuments? It's a question that Al-Jazeeraites don't ever ask.

After the Dayton Accords in Bosnia and in postconflict Kosovo, reconstruction aid poured in from Saudi Arabia. Much of it went into Wahhabi proselytizing, bullying, converting and bribing of destitute Muslims. An austere desert sect, Wahhabism cannot abide what it considers idolatry, frippery, or nostalgia for objects in religious places. When forced by locals to renovate rather than supplant, the Saudis obliterated all historical highlights, interior decoration, turquoise tiling and the like in local mosques, ripping out and whitewashing everywhere. Like the Serbs and Croats, they forcibly purged what they considered alien--only they did so within the precincts of their own religion. In Kosovo's cemeteries, weeping villagers often witnessed Saudi bulldozers destroying the marble headstones of their Albanian forefathers from the 14th and 15th centuries. U.N. observers considered it an intra-Muslim dispute beyond their ken.

So much for the Saudis abroad. What about the holy soil of Saudi Arabia, in Mecca and Medina--terrain that Osama bin Laden so fiercely declared as threatened by the proximity of American infidel bases? As it happens, there the Saudi record is even worse, with the Bin Laden family in the forefront of razing and building contracts.

During the Ottoman centuries, Mecca and Medina became highly cosmopolitan, with many world Muslims of varied sects choosing to settle and die there. Their descendants often came to visit their ancestors' tombs. That sacred ground was the common heritage of all Muslims. It became Saudi property when the Wahhabis took over in the 1920s and, ever since, they have systematically destroyed all such sites, including the tombs of the Prophet's own family and companions. This always involved digging deep under the foundations to remove all fragments of bones. In Mecca, in the 1970s, they even tore down the dwelling of Mohammed's mother. A McDonald's has replaced it. To many eyes, even the Kaaba's Great Mosque of Mohammed has been utterly destroyed by total renovation.

Few Muslims dare to say such things publicly, of course, least of all Al-Jazeera correspondents. The monuments, though, or what remains of them, speak volumes."
I juat love the McDonalds touch.

Posted by tipper 2005-07-13 21:58|| 2005-07-13 21:58|| Front Page Top

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