News Article: Transforming Islam's Holiest Site

Mar 9, 2007 at 7:47 PM
5 comments

I think this is really sad.I believe the Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, would be horrified to see so much money being poured into creating decadent buildings much taller than the Kaaba when women are mistreated worldwide and even our own brothers and sisters in Islam are starving to death. This is wrong. Very wrong.

The Price of Progress: Transforming Islam’s Holiest Site

By HASSAN M. FATTAH

Published: March 8, 2007

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Five times a day across the globe devout Muslims face this city in prayer, focused on a site where they believe Abraham built a temple to God. The spot is also the place Muslims are expected to visit at least once in their lives.

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Tamara Abdul Hadi for The New York Times

A huge project is under way near the Kaaba, in the Grand Mosque, altering the skyline at Islam’s holiest site. The Abraj al Bait Mall will bring an amusement park ride, fast food and a lingerie shop to the neighborhood.

Now as they make the pilgrimage clothed in simple white cotton wraps, they will see something other than the stark black cube known as the Kaaba, which is literally the center of the Muslim world. They will also see Starbucks. And Cartier and Tiffany. And H&M and Topshop.

The Abraj al Bait Mall — one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, outfitted with flat-panel monitors with advertisements and announcements, neon lights, an amusement park ride, fast-food restaurants and a lingerie shop — has been built directly across from Islam’s holiest site.

Not everyone considers this progress.

“Mecca is becoming like Las Vegas, and that is a disaster,” said Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, a Saudi opposition research organization. “It will have a disastrous effect on Muslims because going to Mecca will have no feeling. There is no charm anymore. All you see is glass and cement.”

The mall, which opened a week before the annual pilgrimage, called the hajj, in December, is the first phase in a $13 billion construction boom in Mecca that promises to change how this city, forbidden to everyone but Muslims, looks and feels.

The Abraj al Bait housing and hotel complex, a 1.5-million-square-yard development that will include a towering hotel, has begun to redraw the skyline of this ancient religious city.

When the project is completed in 2009, it will include the seventh tallest building in the world, its developers say, with a hospital, hotels and prayer halls. A public-announcement system pipes in prayers from the Grand Mosque across the way, and worshipers can join the masses simply by opening their draperies.

In nearby Jabal Omar, an entire mountain is being flattened to make way for a huge hotel and high-rise complex. And elsewhere, cranes dot the skyline with up to 130 new high-rise towers planned for the area.

“This is the end of Mecca,” said Dr. Irfan Ahmed in London. He has formed the Islamic Heritage Foundation to try to preserve the Islamic history of Mecca, Medina, the second holiest city, and other important religious sites in Saudi Arabia. “Before, even in the days of the Ottomans, none of the buildings in Mecca towered higher than the Grand Mosque. Now these are much higher and more disrespectful.”

Money is certainly one of the motivators in the building boom. Every year, up to four million people descend on this city during the pilgrimage, while a stream continues to flow through here during the year, spending an average $2,000 to $3,000 to stay, eat and shop.

Billboards along the way to Mecca remind investors of the potential earnings from owning an apartment here; some claim a 25 percent return on investment. Advertisements on Arab satellite television channels remind viewers that “you, too, can have the opportunity to enjoy this blessed view.”

Muhammad al-Abboud, a real estate agent, recounts tales of Pakistani businessmen plunking down $15 million to buy several apartments at a time. Saudi princes own entire floors.

A three-bedroom apartment here runs about $3 million, Mr. Abboud said. One directly overlooking the Grand Mosque can reach $5 million.

Critics of the development complain that the result is gated communities where worshipers can separate themselves from the crowds, thereby violating the spirit of the hajj, where all stand equal before God.

“All of Mecca is a sanctuary,” Mr. Abboud said. “So how could something like this not be snapped up?” But some groups say the building boom also has religious motives. They accuse the archconservative Salafi, who hold great sway in Saudi Arabia, of seeking to eliminate historic spots, fearing that these sites would become objects of worship themselves.

Dr. Ahmed of London has cataloged the destruction of more than 300 separate antiquity sites, including cemeteries and mosques. He says the house where the Prophet Muhammad lived was razed and today a dilapidated library, with its windows and doors shuttered, stands in its place.

“It is not respecting the Kaaba, not respecting the house of God or the environment of the sanctuary,” Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who wants to preserve Mecca’s heritage, said of the development. “You are not supposed to even cut a tree in this city, so how could you blow up a mountain? The Islamic laws have been broken.”

Progress has exacted a heavy price in Mecca. More pilgrims than ever can come here, thanks to billions spent on tunnels and infrastructure to accommodate them. But in exchange, the city’s once famed night market, where pilgrims brought their wares to sell, is gone. The Meccan homes and buildings that filled the area near the mosque were demolished in the 1970s to enlarge the mosque. The neighborhoods and families who lived near the mosque and welcomed pilgrims have long since moved away.

Mecca has long been a commercial as well as a religious center, but increasingly global brands dominate here.

Mr. Angawi, the Saudi architect, has led a lonely campaign within the kingdom to bring attention to the destruction of the historic sites. Dr. Ahmed has worked to lobby Asian and Arab governments to press the Saudis to stop such demolitions. And Mr. Ahmed, in Washington, has built a database of the historic spots now destroyed. Many Muslims inside and outside Saudi Arabia have remained silent about the issues, they say, fearing the loss of financing from Saudi Arabia for religious institutions and projects.

Saudi officials say they have been painstakingly preserving the Islamic artifacts they find, and operate two small museums in Mecca. In all, they say, more than $19 billion has been spent on preserving the country’s Muslim heritage. They dismiss their critics as cranks who have no following.

Developers and real estate agents, meanwhile, say the construction makes room for even more Muslims to take part in the hajj, and therefore serves the greater good.

That suggests that the changes are far from over.

“Mecca has never been changed like it has now,” Mr. Angawi said. “What you see now is only 10 percent of what’s to come. What is coming is much, much worse.”

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[this is good]

thanks for sharing

this has nothing to do with religion, but more on culture.

is progress a sin?

no, it is not.

however, Islam promotes moderation. I would not think it suitable to build up the amusement park. I would also like to ask whether or not the locations of historic value be labeled as Heritage Sites.

We should not stop progress, but we should not sacrifice culture for progress.

I agree with you, this has more to do with culture than it does religion. But how is building a an enormous mall, with an amusement park ride, progress? It has nothing to do with the betterment of society. Maybe if there were special quarters for pilgrims who were ill, injured, or elderly then we could consider it progress. But right now, the only progress is that more pilgrims can go to Hajj... and spend more money. What happened to the days of pilgrims selling their wares to each other? Instead, I am reminded of jahiliyya, when the merchants would charge pilgrims to worship idols.

This is not only about culture, but also religion, because the whole point of this construction is to profit off of pilgrims.

true, it is to profit off the pilgrims, who make their way to Mecca during the Hajj, which is once every year. the influx of people only occurs during that period.

by building a mall, perhaps they could attract more people to come for umrah's and shop.

yes, it is about making pilgrims spend more. a sad case of capitalism.

I am actually against the amusement park, mind you. But then, the hotel and mall....I think your idea of a hostel and treatment center makes more sense...