Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas'

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Opinion piece by British Imam Ajmal Masroor in the Guardian a few days ago that I think went unnoticed around here, and I thought quite interesting, and I was curious how Muslim GAFers in particular felt about these claims.
What have they done to my hajj?

The spirituality of the Muslim pilgrimage is being ruined by skyscrapers and traffic jams around the holy site, while rising costs mean it is a ritual that only the rich can afford

Today I have completed my hajj – the annual pilgrimage that brings together millions of people in the holy city of Mecca. I am extremely worried that hajj may have lost its true spiritual meaning. I may have attained a personal triumph for completing the rituals but the economic, environmental and human cost is staggering. I lament the speed of change that is sweeping this city, obliterating history and heritage in its path.
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But when I look around I see the concrete jungle dominating the skyline and imposing itself over the house of God – the Ka'bah – and I feel betrayed by the custodians of the holy sites. If I want to see skyscrapers I can take a quick trip to the Docklands in London. I did not come here to be shown another city of tall buildings, just like Las Vegas or New York. In these places I find no spirituality. I am pretty certain God does not want his holy site to be desecrated in this fashion either.

The cost of hajj has trebled over the last five years, making the pilgrimage unaffordable for ordinary people. The new high-rise five-star hotels surrounding the Ka'bah are available to those who can afford them. I noticed this year that hajj has already become a ritual for the super rich. The poorer people are being priced out by the unfair and disproportionate price hike. The essence of hajj lies in creating equality between all people by putting on two unstitched white pieces of cloth. This instantly eliminates social and economic inequality. The current trend is making equality a distant dream. I came to hajj to give up material pursuits but materialism is here in full force. There is no spirituality in this.
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Rest here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/oct/28/hajj-mecca-islam-skyscrapers-litter

There's also an article (from which I got the thread title) from last year from the Independent that talks about what Saudi Arabia has done to Mecca. I particularly thought this was shocking:
But critics fear that the desire to expand the pilgrimage sites has allowed the authorities to ride roughshod over the area's cultural heritage. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of Mecca's millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades alone.
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Religion, like everything else bends to accomodate the affluent rather than the poor. Why would Islam be any better?
 
At first glance, the pic in the OP looks like a clock tower with dusty rubble at the base. Upon closer inspection I think those are small buildings under the clock.
 
injurai said:
This is why some of them detest western culture...
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"You forgot to lay the blame for all this on us in the west... I'm sure someone will be along soon to correct this!"

That was the first fucking comment on the Guardian article. Some people sure are predictable.
 
Darklord said:
How is this western culture?
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Tence said:
Oh so it's Westerns Culture's fault Saudi rich people are building huge building's for Saudi's to live in a Saudi city?
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Router said:
We didn't have anything to do with that.

I swear.
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Doesn't have to be strictly western culture. But I have a friend who lives out their and for some of the people that live in that region they equate it to being the fault of western influence.

Take it as you will, there are more complex things involved here anyways.
 
It'd be interesting to hear Muslim-GAF's opinion on this. I remember reading about the destruction of old historical sites in Mecca a while back, and was horrified as a historian to hear about it, and I hope the rest of the Muslim world puts pressure on Saudi Arabia to put a stop to this.
 
I remember claiming that the new buildings looked like an abomination and some gaffers had the galls to say that we would be praising them if they were built in the west.

As an atheist, I don't give a hoot about any choice of magical man in the sky, but I can appreciate the history behind the original architecture and the place itself. What is being done there goes beyond gross.
 
This is no different than the papal tax (Indulgence) the Pope was trying to pull. The question is why do Islam have so much archaic rituals.
 
injurai said:
Doesn't have to be strictly western culture. But I have a friend who lives out their and for some of the people that live in that region they equate it to being the fault of western influence.

Take it as you will, there are more complex things involved here anyways.
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You gotta have a scape goat. Western Culture didn't tell the Saudis to destroy a Ottoman fort to build that monstrosity in the pic. It's sad they don't value their past.

tino said:
This is no different than the papal tax (Indulgence) the Pope was trying to pull. The question is why do Islam have so much archaic rituals.
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How is it the same thing?
 
injurai said:
Doesn't have to be strictly western culture. But I have a friend who lives out their and for some of the people that live in that region they equate it to being the fault of western influence.

Take it as you will, there are more complex things involved here anyways.
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No. It's not "western" influence. It's Muslims being human. Humans are greedy, don't go blaming "western" influence on the human condition.
 
The picture in the OP looks unbalanced, I'd even say wrong.



Modern architecture? OK, why not.
Rampage of the traces of the past in a holy city? Questionable.
Increase traffic and prices in the area? People from all the world and all social origins come to this sanctuary to fulfill a religious duty, it's disrespectful to them to start the gearing. Especially if you claim to be the guardian of the sanctuary, and the religion.
 
This has been going on for a very long time.
Mecca has never really been favourable to the poor. The culture is the complete opposite of what it had preached at one point centuries ago.
What's worse, I've had Muslim friends go on pilgrimage, to be treated terrible, belongings forcefully taken away, physically assaulted. Both by authorities and citizens alike, because they don't look like your average Briton. Of course, once they find out you hold a British/European passport, you're treated like royalty.

injurai said:
This is why some of them detest western culture...
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I don't think we can blame this on western culture. I think the Saudis are absolutely in love with western culture because it is the dominant culture of the world, the some bad parts of western culture (materialism for instance) resonate deep with the way Mecca, like any other ancient city, has always been . They imitate it, and also despise it at the same time because it isn't their culture. The cognitive dissonance is huge.
 
Twix said:
You are blatantly mistaken if you think Al-Saud and the Wahhabi movement represent the authentic Islam.
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You're right. I'm pretty sure they're not true Scotsmen.

No version of Islam, under any rulers from the Umayyad Caliphate onwards would be immune to what I'm describing. In fact, no religion would be immune to it.
 
Hajj is something all Muslims must do at least once in their lifetime [with some exceptions as explained below]. On the outpricing of the poor:

It's a difficult one. The increase in globalisation, and the ease with which a great number of the billion followers can get to mecca to perform their hajj, has already caused a market where the prices can and do rise.

And yet, hajj is only obligatory to those who can afford it. So as far as obligations go, it is no problem on the part of pilgrim.

And yet, the idea of commerce setting the prices at a bar not so as to allow as many people as possible to perform hajj, but to earn as much capital as possible is where islam is concerned, just not right, I feel.
 
Funky Papa said:
I remember claiming that the new buildings looked like an abomination and some gaffers had the galls to say that we would be praising them if they were built in the west.

As an atheist, I don't give a hoot about any choice of magical man in the sky, but I can appreciate the history behind the original architecture and the place itself. What is being done there goes beyond gross.
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Is this snobbery needed?
 
xenist said:
You're right. I'm pretty sure they're not true Scotsmen.

No version of Islam, under any rulers from the Umayyad Caliphate onwards would be immune to what I'm describing. In fact, no religion would be immune to it.
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Yup, but that is a bit too much of a false equivalence. Wahabbis are reaching medieval - Christian Inquisition levels of cognitive disonnance in a scale unheard of in the modern world.

Also, there is far more than mere greed involved in that. Many of the historical sites destroyed in the name of modernity also happens to be holy or important for other strains of less intolerant Islam such as Sufism. This is not too much different from the practices of tombs and holy sites desecration that Mali rebels are performing.
 
I was there in 2009, did my Umre. They have a shopping mall 200 metres outside Kaaba with a Burger King in it.

People come there on a pilgrimage, not to buy goods.
 
TurkishEmperor said:
I was there in 2009, did my Umre. They have a shopping mall 200 metres outside Kaaba with a Burger King in it.

People come there on a pilgrimage, not to buy goods.
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Is there some great problem with the people going shopping before or after they visit the Kaaba? Is there a Hadith that warns against Burger King? Because if there was, that would lend a LOT of legitimacy to Islam.
 
You can clearly see the relationship Saudi Arabia has with America, they have those yellow school buses there, American cars everywhere. For someone like me coming from Europe those were the first time Ive seen outside movies.
 
TurkishEmperor said:
I was there in 2009, did my Umre. They have a shopping mall 200 metres outside Kaaba with a Burger King in it.

People come there on a pilgrimage, not to buy goods.
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Let's be real though. Every city has the need of an economy. I'm sure people on their pilgrimage want to leave with something to remember the trip and the people that live there need jobs.
 
TurkishEmperor said:
You can clearly see the relationship Saudi Arabia has with America, they have those yellow school buses there, American cars everywhere. For someone like me coming from Europe those were the first time Ive seen outside movies.
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That's not just in Saudi Arabia, though, but all over the Middle East.
 
ThoseDeafMutes said:
Is there some great problem with the people going shopping before or after they visit the Kaaba? Is there a Hadith that warns against Burger King? Because if there was, that would lend a LOT of legitimacy to Islam.
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No there isn't, but when you visit such a holy place you don't want consumerism.
 
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