“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, 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,'” The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports in an article dated October 11, 2006.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
SJ on a popsicle st… This is a joke, right?
Apple Store Fifth Avenue opened as a destination, a “mecca,” if you will, meaning only “a place that attracts people of a particular group or with a particular interest” and we mean nothing else by the use of the word “mecca” — in fact, we’re sorry we used it already, but we did so only because the MEMRI story used the word and, oh, we used it once in a headline for the Apple Store Fifth Avenue. Let’s just forget about that one, okay?
As we were saying, the Apple Store Fifth Avenue opened as a destination on May 6, 2006, so it’s too late to “stop the project,” by which we mean no disrespect. The “Genius Bars” contained (below ground, not in the cube) within the retail store dispense Macintosh computer advice, when not being overrun with generally clueless iPod owners: NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ARE SERVED (to customers, that we know of, not including ourselves – don’t ask).
The Apple Store Fifth Avenue is not “a new insult to Islam” nor is it “clearly meant to provoke Muslims.” Instead, it is meant a paean to the cube, as the perfect form or whatever the hell, sorry… heck, Steve Jobs thinks it is – even though the perfect form is a sphere (again, we mean no disrespect to Islam; or Jobs for that matter; in fact, we’re probably wrong about the sphere… Yeah, we’re definitely wrong). You see, Jobs has a serious love of cubes (see NeXT Cube, Power Mac G4 Cube), you might even call it a cube fetish… uh… or not… um, never mind.) and it is clearly meant ONLY to provoke retail sales for Apple products (and those products from certain chosen ones, you know, like Belkin, Bose, etc.) to all people, including Muslims.
Jobs, we hope this is a joke, by which we mean no disrespect to anyone if it isn’t. No disrespect whatsoever.
Related articles:
Apple Store Fifth Avenue’s 1 millionth customer receives prizes including MacBook, iPod and more – September 10, 2006
Apple Store Fifth Avenue grand opening generates worldwide press attention – May 22, 2006
Attention pilgrims: Friday Apple Store Fifth Avenue photos wanted [UPDATED with 360-degree QTVR] – May 21, 2006
Video of Apple Store Fifth Avenue Grand Opening from front of line – May 20, 2006
Man proposes marriage via Apple Store Fifth Avenue time-lapse movie (with images) – May 20, 2006
Videos of Apple CEO Steve Jobs on NBC Nightly News, CNBC – May 19, 2006
Apple posts time-lapse movies of Apple Store Fifth Avenue crowds – May 19, 2006
Apple fans crisscross world to attend Apple Retail Store grand opening celebrations – May 19, 2006
Video from Apple Store Fifth Avenue Grand Opening queue – May 19, 2006
JupiterResearch analyst: Apple Store Fifth Avenue ‘a stunning sight, puts a strong stamp on NYC’ – May 19, 2006
Steve Jobs at Apple Store Fifth Avenue (link to photos) – May 19, 2006
Attention pilgrims: Friday Apple Store Fifth Avenue photos wanted [UPDATED] – May 19, 2006
Apple’s Fifth Avenue Mecca could easily do $40 million in annual sales – May 19, 2006
As fans line up for Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue retail store, a third NYC store is in the works – May 19, 2006
Sneak peak into Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue Retail Store – May 18, 2006
Extraordinary Apple Store Fifth Avenue to open on Friday, May 19 (with photos) – May 18, 2006
Apple’s Fifth Avenue ‘Glass Cube’ store to test several retail innovations – May 17, 2006
Mac users to converge on NYC; plan overnight sidewalk camp for opening of Apple Store Fifth Avenue – May 13, 2006
Apple starts online countdown to Apple Store Fifth Avenue ‘Glass Cube’ Grand Opening – May 11, 2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs may visit New York City to cut ribbon on glass cube – May 04, 2006
Apple’s Fifth Avenue ‘Glass Cube’ retail store grand opening on May 6 in New York City – April 27, 2006
32-foot-by-32-foot glass cube-topped Midtown Manhattan Apple ‘Mecca’ to serve the faithful 24/7? – April 18, 2006
Photos of Apple’s $9 million 32-foot-by-32-foot New York City Glass Cube – January 01, 2006
Steve Jobs to eventually take his NYC big glass cube with him – December 02, 2005
Glass cube assembly begins at site of Apple’s 25,000-square-foot 5th Avenue flagship store – October 28, 2005
RUMOR: Apple Store coming to Midtown Manhattan beneath transparent glass cube – March 04, 2005
It is time to for us to pay attention to the fact that we are facing an enemy that hates our entire civilization. It does not matter what we do. They can not be reasoned with. They will not stop until we submit to their insane version of religion or they are Xterminated.
Durka durka — hint: Team America.
MDN is lacking 2 spheres.
Sol,
yeah, throwing stones at the devil ends the ceremony. However, given the current state of mind of the average NYPD officer and the new legislative measures approved by Congress, this is something I won’t dare.
I mean, I’d love to visit Cuba one day (sans Fidel, I may add), but Guantanamo is not on my list of sights to see, at least not from the inside.
Charles:
You failed to include the religion of atheism espoused by Communism that has killed many more people than all other religions combined.
Stalin’s regime killed approximately 20,000,000 persons. Some estimate more than 66,000,000 deaths.
Red China killed approximately 100,000,000 persons.
Pol Pot’s regime killed more than 25% of the entire Cambodian population or approximately 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 deaths.
WHY ARE YOU APOLOGIZING! This is OUR country and WE THE PEOPLE in it, can build or SAY whatever the F we want. The Muslim cancer that is spreading throughout the world must be put in check. NO APOLOGIES NECESSARY.
Billy,
Although most muslims are most likely peaceful, the bottom line is that Islam is the only religion that condones/approves killing people based on their beliefs. If you leave Islam, your fellow Muslims can kill you. Thats crazy!!! And if you kill “infidels” you’ll get 72 virgins in the afterlife. Once again… CRAZY!!!.
If was a muslim, i would want 72 thirty-something hot sluts waiting for me. Virgins don’t know what to do.
Killing people because they have different beliefs if fucking ignorant and can’t be tolerated after the 4th century.
WTF? I’m tired of hearing about “offending Islam!” We also offended Islam by stopping Flight 93 from hitting the White House.
I respect every religion and people’s right to believe whatever, but Islam has gotten out of hand.
The Pope quotes something from old text about Islam being violent and, go figure, Muslims become violent in protest.
I hope the world eventually has enough and puts Muslims back in their place, which is, one of MANY religions, NOT the one religion that will eventually dominate.
As long as Muslims can put cartoons out offending Christians and Jews, I think it’s ok to put cartoons out of people pissing on Mohammed.
Enough is enough already.
Why aren’t the Christians offended at the Apple cube store since the Bible described heaven as a cube (I think figuratively, not literally) 700 years before M’med came on the scene (Revelation 12:16 – the last page of the last book).
Plus the Bible’s cube is about 12,000 football stadiums wide on each side! Kind of dwarfs Apple’s store and the Kaba. Unfortunately the Muslims will never get to see that cube and they certainly cannot blow it up.
Apple, please keep building cubes – they look heavenly.
Repost, for the retarded:
Look up the word “satire” if you’re questioning why MDN apologizes so profusely in their “take.”
Here, I’ll help you ‘tards:
satire |ˈsaˌtīr| noun the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. See also wit.
More proof that people make claims without doing their homework..stupdiasses.
These “peoples” lives are all about being OFFENDED..well guess what…I’m f*cking offended by their blatant stupidity in the fact they don’t do their basic simple homework and can’t see anything outside their selfish selves… I’m offended that they “BUY” into their religious crap!!…I would bet 99.9999% that their “after existence” is NOTHING like they were TOLD or will experience. Do they even know how BIG the universe is? What if Aliens came down and said..”Hello..we are from your local neighboring galaxy Andromeda..have crossed time and space to meet you…”
…and they would get offended. Anything that is NOT THEM is offending..stupidassed Muslim religion.
It’s true..you don’t see Catholics (not so historically innocent themselves) Jews, Christians, Buddhists..getting all bent out of “shape”…over a shape!.
Stupdiasses..I’m so tired of these stupid-assed religions. No one is going to rescue you. No one is going to SAVE you. No GOVERNMENT is going to save you either..
A good example of these “Critical thinkers/readers” is on a discussion regarding a “found” orb. People just dont read or wonder about anything.
Perhaps if the Ottoman Empire had survived the world would be a much different place. And perhaps the face of Islam would be much more serene. As it is, despite the fact that the majority of Muslims could care less about the cause of the radical zealots, the radical zealots are the face of Islam to much of the world.
God save us, I don’t know if there is any strategy or policy that will fix the arising from all of this.
If there was a centralized authority among the Muslims then this would be a lot easier. We need to learn some lessons from history. Machiavelli’s “The Prince” still holds a lot of truisms, but it must be aplied correctly.
We should rid ourselves of all Middle Eastern oil, one way or another. Completely pull out of there, and then let them beat the crap out of each other until there is one controlling group then we can negotiate with that new state and then form real relationships. Ala, unification of China, Japan, Italy, the U.K., U.S. Civil War, etc… But the world populace with the eyes of the media are way too squemish for that.
Horrible? Yes. Effective and true, YES. History has proven it.
Most americans realize that most musilims are peaceful… That is not why we are disgusted with their religion…. we are disgusted because when fanatics are killing people in their God’s name, and for their religion…. they do nothing about it. You don’t see them standing up and protesting the terrorists. You don’t see them supporting us after 9/11, all you see is a willingness to say nothing and to not care.
Then we find out that there is clauses in the Koran that DO tell them they should kill anyone who is not Muslim, and what are they supposed to do? It is against their religion NOT to kill us! Somethingi needs to happen. Something big.
Here we go again.
Look…all Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Christian Scientists, 3rd Adventists, Hindu-ists, Jews, Shintos, VooDoo-ists, Sikhists, Druists, Wiccans, and Atheists…HERE ME OUT:
I did not create religion, you did.
Its not my mess to clean-up, its yours.
I’m not telling anyone to kill in my name, you are doing that.
The sooner you all realize any of this, the sooner you all be able to get along. Because you see…in the beginning, I created the Heavens and the Earth. It was not until humans started roaming around that religion was created.
I knew it would be trouble from the beginning.
I don’t require that you have religions, or that your “praise” and/or “worship” me. I certainly don’t require that you build temples in my name either. IN FACT, I REQUIRE NOTHING.
I’m God, why would I require anything? Everything YOU have is because of me…do you see the irony?
In conclusion…everybody just relax and open your eyes. I was at the 5th Ave. store the other day…that place is friggin’ great.
Okay, now I’m confused.
I don’t know if I find the “God” post funny or offending, despite it’s satire. I love satire.
Ugh???
Isn’t all faith blind?
And if faith has logic behind it, then it isn’t faith at all but rather logic?
Everything offends these pschos. By their silence, so-called moderate muslims are supporting the terrorists and make the rest of the wold believe that they’re all nuts.
To the liberal jack asses. Stop throughing out red herrings by bringing up communism, Christians, etc. We’re talking about the insane religion of Islam here. Stay on topic dirt bags.
By their silence, so-called moderate muslims are supporting the terrorists
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Really… “Moderates” say constantly that Islam is peaceful and tolerant, etc. But none of them are doing anything about the fundamentalists.
I’d take Apple over Islam any day.
Muslims are neanderthals who don’t deserve the light of day and are just pissed at the rest of the world.
Are you offendable?
you know – the koran now comes in two-ply
Cubert, watch your back.
Funny how it takes a direct hit on Apple to get most of the usual terrorist apologist that frequent this board to stand down. Is it going to take a nuke to your nearest city to get you on the right program too? Figure it out Islam is very, very, evil and bad. They won’t stop until we’re all dead or converted and turned into their slaves. Only one way to stop them. Thank god for the US and the smart half that want to take the fight to these lunatics and not sit back and try to not offend them and hope they stop bothering us. New flash, they won’t stop bothering us no matter what we do.
These fanatics are always looking for an excuse to kill or blow something up. I hate them all.
If there are peaceful ones they had better start sticking up for themselves and their religion. When the Born Again Christians are overboard on an issue I certainly, as a Christian, have no problem telling them they are out of line. Grow a backbone peaceful Muslims! Reclaim your religion from these murderous nut cases!
John Lennon had it right–“Imagine no religion, it’s easy if you try, nothing to kill or die for.” He also predicted Christianity would go. And if we don’t buy a clue he might be right about THAT one too!
A war for oil makes more sense than any religious war. Our country can’t (unfortunately) function without oil, it’s in everything we use and do. Religion is just a belief. Everyone is entitled to theirs and leave others alone in PEACE!
Even if this is a resurrected comment from before the thing was built, others don’t know that so the comments are now given new life. This is scary stuff (if actually true). I am one of the few people who actually read the Pope’s original speech that provoked all that reaction. I understood it as an academic talk to academics. Clearly, people with little or no education (or those who choose to ignore theirs) had no clue about what he was talking about. I saw no offense in it. And I obviously see no “offense” in this cube thing. I’m also getting tired of hearing mainline Muslims simply ignore this kind of thing as part of the “radical” or “extremist” group. Clearly, there are enough of them in high enough places to be considered Islamists. And I’m disgusted with it. Disgusted with Islam itself will not be far behind if this continues. The “real” “mainline” Muslims need to fix this now – or their religion has been hijacked to where we can only consider the “extremists” mainline and make judgements of them generalize to all of Islam. This has become disgusting and scary and I’m sick and tired of the western world kowtowing to Islam.