Mecca Gets a Skybox
The holy city of Mecca is getting a little fancy. From today's NYTimes:
Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world’s holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London’s Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people.
And that's not all. Mecca is being upgraded all over, with luxury hotels, high-rise apartments, and a newly-expanded Grand Mosque. Not everybody likes this:
“It is the commercialization of the house of God,” said Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who founded a research center that studies urban planning issues surrounding the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and has been one of the development’s most vocal critics. “The closer to the mosque, the more expensive the apartments. In the most expensive towers, you can pay millions” for a 25-year leasing agreement, he said. “If you can see the mosque, you pay triple.”
Millions of faithful Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca every year. The hajj is one of the Pillars of Islam, actually. And the Saudi government, who is behind the bling-ification of the holiest city of Islam, says it's just trying to make everyone feel comfortable. Especially rich people:
Like the luxury boxes that encircle most sports stadiums, the apartments will allow the wealthy to peer directly down at the main event from the comfort of their suites without having to mix with the ordinary rabble below.
“We don’t want to bring New York to Mecca,” Mr. Angawi said. “The hajj was always supposed to be a time when everyone is the same. There are no classes, no nationalities. It is the one place where we find balance. You are supposed to leave worldly things behind you.”
This may be good news for us, of course. It's hard to hate decadent western culture when the most decadent western cultural artifact is, for the time being, the holiest city of Islam.
- Comment (11)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
May '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Or you can have the old Mecca Arena (former home of the Milwaukee Bucks and now known as U.S. Cellular Arena) for a fraction of that. Just point yourself towards Oscar Robertson at least once per day.
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Gotta give the Saudis props for their entrepreneurial spirit!
Aug '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Nouveau riche shows. Sounds like something the Taliban would like to blow up, sort of like Bamyan, you know, but without the history, tradition, devotion, and apostasy.
Edited on Dec 30, 2010 at 1:45pmJul '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Checking the rates? Concerned about visa requirements and exchange rates? Unless you are Muslim, these sticky details need not concern you. Any attempt to visit Mecca will end in one of the Saudi hospitality suites especially reserved for infidels just like you! Whether your hosts embrace modernity with the latest cattle prod, or cherish the traditional with a white hot poker, you will remember your stay vividly for a lifetime.
Jul '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Islam as practiced by the fundamentalists abhors materialism. As Mecca becomes glitzier, the Saudis will be seen as straying deeper into apostasy. There is no greater sin in Islam than heresy, an occasion for beheading if sword and offender are handy. This may be why the Saudis rival the Israelis in the proficiency of their security apparatus.
May '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Well, it is a mega-church, basically. The Crystal Cathedral. Whole new redesign. Since this is the absolute least bad thing Arab sheiks can spend money on, aside from horseracing, I got no problem.
Jul '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
This story gives Me the mental image of Wayne Newton in their piano bar singing "Forgive Me."
Edited on Dec 30, 2010 at 5:19pmOct '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Jimmy Carter: This story gives Me the mental image of Wayne Newton in their piano bar singing "Forgive Me." · Dec 30 at 5:18pm
Edited on Dec 30 at 05:19 pm
...or Ray Stevens singing "Ahab the Arab".
Jul '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Mike LaRoche
...or Ray Stevens singing "Ahab the Arab". · Dec 30 at 7:01pm
I was going to use a Cat Stevens reference, but I like Yers better. Well played.
Oct '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
Jimmy Carter
Mike LaRoche
...or Ray Stevens singing "Ahab the Arab". · Dec 30 at 7:01pm
I was going to use a Cat Stevens reference, but I like Yers better. Well played. · Dec 30 at 7:17pm
Thank you, Mr. President!
Aug '10
Re: Mecca Gets a Skybox
. Sir Richard Burton made the pilgrimage as he knew the language (and 31 others) but there was a possible checkpoint and he would be found lacking unless he made a singular change to his appearance. So , in his 30s, he was circumcised for the sole purpose of satisfying his curiousity . As this was in the middle 1800s ,there were probably fewer princes and profligate royals in the Arab World.
one more thing : I posit one more popular song , albeit written in 1921 , but here is by a slightly more contemporary group
(highlight and right click to see-links dont appear to work today) You won't believe who's playing !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJGqrD0A4BM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
"The Sheik of Araby"
Happy New Year
Inshallah
Edited on Jan 2, 2011 at 3:04pm