In the United States, you have hotel rooms with the Vegas Strip view; in France, you can get a room with Eiffel Tower view; in England, you have the option to go for a room that gives you a view of the London Eye; and in India, you can get a room with a view of the Taj Mahal. The better the view, the more money you have to spend. Not one to be left behind, Saudi Arabia has the Makkah Clock Royal Tower Hotel, which gives you the option of purchasing a room with a city view, Haram view or the Ka’aba view. Previously, in order to get a better view of the House of Allah, a person needed to have the physical and mental conviction to navigate through hundreds of people wanting the same thing. Unfortunately that conviction is now replaced by the size of one’s pocket. Growing up, we were always taught about the sanctity of the Holy Mosque and how it is supposed to be the most important and prominent structure in Makkah. Now we have this huge, almost satanic steel structure, towering over the Ka’aba. Not only is this a complete eyesore, it has come at a huge economic and cultural price. According to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, construction of the project cost an eye-watering 15 billion dollars. Just the crescent on top of the main tower cost approximately 24 million dollars!! The construction of the project also required the destruction of the Ajyad Fortress, built by the Ottomans in the 18th Century. This is in line with the recent Saudi trend of the destruction of historical Islamic sites for developmental or ‘religious’ purposes. According to some estimates, over 95 percent of the historical Islamic sites in Makkah and Medina have been destroyed by the Saudis in the past two decades in order to prevent the spread of ‘shirk’ (sin of practicing idolatry and polytheism). This is the result of the same holier-than-thou religious indoctrination through which the clerics in Saudi Arabia continuously pass fatwas against women rights, oppress minorities, label different sects as heretics and pump millions of dollars in sectarian terrorism throughout the world.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 10:02:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015