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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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 Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject: This week Muslims offended by Apple Computer |
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From Occidentalism: http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=380
Mecca Project:
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| On October 10, 2006, an Islamic website posted a message alerting Muslims to what it claims is a new insult to Islam. According to the message, the cube-shaped building which is being constructed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in midtown Manhattan, is clearly meant to provoke Muslims. The fact that the building resembles the Ka�ba (see picture below), is called �Apple Mecca,� is intended to be open 24 hours a day like the Ka�ba, and moreover, contains bars selling alcoholic beverages, constitutes a blatant insult to Islam. The message urges Muslims to spread this alert, in hope that �Muslims will be able to stop the project.� |
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD131506
Fifth Avenue Retail Store:
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A Middle East research organization reports that Apple�s flagship retail store on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan (between 58th and 59th) is offensive to Muslims. The report cites an Islamic Web site urging Muslims to spread the word in hope that �Muslims will be able to stop the project.�
The report by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a 501 (c)3 organization based in Washington, D.C., claims that Apple�s cube-shaped building (pictured above) �constitutes a blatant insult to Islam.�
The reason? Because the building resembles the Ka�ba in Mecca (pictured below), is called �Apple Mecca,� (by whom?), is open 24 hours a day like the Ka�ba, and �contains bars selling alcoholic beverages.�
Ka�ba means cube. It is the first place Allah was worshiped. From the outside it does not look very exciting. It is made of concrete blocks. Inside it is decorated with texts from the Qu�ran.
I was just at the Fifth Avenue Apple store in NYC and don�t remember them serving alcohol. The report appears to have misunderstood the intent of the �Genius Bar� and the �iPod bar.� The group which �explores the Middle East through the region�s media� only appears to have two valid facts in their complaint - that the Apple store is in the shape of a cube and that it�s open 24 hours a day.
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http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=305 |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, if that is the name (officially or unofficially), then there would be little doubt that it was built to resemble the Ka'ba. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| Well, if that is the name (officially or unofficially), then there would be little doubt that it was built to resemble the Ka'ba. |
1. Mecca has become part of English vocabulary as a center of something. Mecca of baseball, mecca of football, mecca of ________.
2. Do the muslims now have total copyright of the cube? I mean, does a cube shaped building from now on mean it is being designed to look like the Ka'ba?
3. Lots of things are opne 24hours a day. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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| happeningthang wrote: |
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The Mac store entrance is glass
Apple Store- 5th ave- pics
And no, it doesn't sell alcohol inside. |
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Ryst Helmut
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Location: In search of the elusive signature...
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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Appletini anyone?
!shoosh,
Ryst |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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Next thing that they'll **** about is eating pork. If it's not in their country, they should shut the hell up. 
Mod Edit: Edited for language. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know if the Fifth Avenue store is offensive to Muslims or not, but...
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| If it's not in their country, they should shut the hell up. |
So if a Sony building in downtown Tokyo had a statue of Jesus getting butt-banged by a donkey, American Christians shouldn't complain about this because Japan isn't a majority-Christian country? Remember, we're not talking about an underground avant-garde art gallery, we're talking about a multinational corporation, which does a good deal of volume in the USA and western Europe.
Like I say, I'm agnostic about the offensivess of the New York building. I just find the logic employed by ChuckECheese a little odd. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
| ...if a Sony building in downtown Tokyo had a statue of Jesus getting butt-banged by a donkey... |
On the Other Hand: I am shocked and appalled at this imagery. Not at all like you. 
Actually, I think that some of what is passed off as innocent "free speech" in "the West," can sometimes be mean-spirited needling directed against "the Orient." That is, the first cartoon was free speech, but the reprints were just not nice, and those who reprinted them knew that they were not nice too.
Still, this is just a building, man. And like Kuros says below, not intentionally made to offend or needle anyone.
This is another example of Islamic hypersensitivity, and their tendency to paint themselves as victims of an insensitive, racist West whenever and whereever possible...
Last edited by Gopher on Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:28 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
I don't know if the Fifth Avenue store is offensive to Muslims or not, but...
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| If it's not in their country, they should shut the hell up. |
So if a Sony building in downtown Tokyo had a statue of Jesus getting butt-banged by a donkey, American Christians shouldn't complain about this because Japan isn't a majority-Christian country? Remember, we're not talking about an underground avant-garde art gallery, we're talking about a multinational corporation, which does a good deal of volume in the USA and western Europe.
Like I say, I'm agnostic about the offensivess of the New York building. I just find the logic employed by ChuckECheese a little odd. |
If it's offensive don't buy the darn thing.
If they don't like christianity and they like to make fun of it, hey, go for it. I just hope they don't go to hell. If it was offensive to my belief, I just wouldn't buy the darn thing from Sony or what ever company. I would buy Samsung instead, if I was so offended.
Give me a break... How idiotic is that........  |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
I don't know if the Fifth Avenue store is offensive to Muslims or not, but...
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| If it's not in their country, they should shut the hell up. |
So if a Sony building in downtown Tokyo had a statue of Jesus getting butt-banged by a donkey, American Christians shouldn't complain about this because Japan isn't a majority-Christian country? Remember, we're not talking about an underground avant-garde art gallery, we're talking about a multinational corporation, which does a good deal of volume in the USA and western Europe.
Like I say, I'm agnostic about the offensivess of the New York building. I just find the logic employed by ChuckECheese a little odd. |
Yeah, but the context of the building below ChuckECheese's comments are about right. The intention of Apple is not to be deliberately offensive. I can't imagine how Sony wouldn't be being deliberately offensive in your scenario.
Given the fact that the complaints are misinformed, and the effort is to try to muzzle free speech, I think ChuckECheese's comments aren't off the wall, even if they are colorful. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:12 am Post subject: |
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I think the most important point and facet of this whole issue is being missed; how a small story gets hashed over and over and over as ALL MUSLIMS condeming something as Western Christian sacriledge. Then , step by step the story grows and is picked up by some Imam who echoes it to another and then you have a bigger story. MEANWHILE, MOST MUSLIMS DON'T CARE AND LIVE IN THEIR OWN WORLD, NOT WORRYING IF .....
The issue is how interest groups both Christian and Muslim use these issues to make it seem like this is the case -- when in fact, most on either side don't care much about said "sacriledge". The issue is -- why are we even discussing the yeahs and nays of this issue at all? It is fringe and meaningless in the larger debate.
DD |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:16 am Post subject: |
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The word ka'aba, as far as I know, connects to a word that means cube. I am not sure if the word is of Indo-European origin, but I believe it is since the Greek word "Kubos" exists and the English word derives from cube. And according this link it derives from the Indo-European root "keu" which has to do with bending something. http://www.pballew.net/arithme9.html
I do not know for sure if it is of Indo-European origin. I do know, unbeknownst to the vast majority of Muslims, the Nabataens who were related the people of Mecca but lived in modern Jordan (think of Petra), southern Lebanon (hence the Lebanese city of Nabatiyah gets its name from the), and Palestine/Israel were Roman allies, and they had a Ka'aba of their own. You can read about in this link: http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Places/Place/441340
Of course, all religions have pagan origins. But the term Kaaba pre-dates Islam and Muslims. People of other Semitic tribes used such structures for worship.
The question is it in good taste to build a business building to mirror a synagogue, church, or a place that resembles a place of pilgrimage for Muslims? I don't think so, not that I would be outraged.
It is true the word Mecca is part of the English language. But when you associate a building with the design we have seen, it is understandable some may object. It is not like the designers had no clue it could be associated in the minds of some with a holy building. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
MEANWHILE, MOST MUSLIMS DON'T CARE AND LIVE IN THEIR OWN WORLD, NOT WORRYING IF .....
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:44 am Post subject: |
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On the other hand wrote:
...if a Sony building in downtown Tokyo had a statue of Jesus getting butt-banged by a donkey...
On the Other Hand: I am shocked and appalled at this imagery. Not at all like you. |
Trust me, no one does blasphemy like a lapsed Catholic.
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That is, the first cartoon was free speech, but the reprints were just not nice, and those who reprinted them knew that they were not nice too.
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Actually, I took the exact opposite view. I thought the first pulication of the cartoons in the Danish paper were a deliberate attempt to offend Muslims, because I saw no pressing reason to publish something like that. However, once the cartoons themselves became news items, I thought it was completely legit for other news outlets to reprint them.
That said, I thought that both the original cartoons and the reprints were the sort of thing that should be premissible to publish in a democracy. |
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