“Recently, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) stated that an anonymous Islamic website in the Middle East urged Muslims to show their outrage at the Apple Store in New York City, which built a pavilion coincidentally resembling the cube shape of the Ka’aba, the ancient structure in Mecca towards which all Muslims pray (the actual structure is glass, though MEMRI referenced a black plywood cover during construction),” Shahed Amanullah reports for alt.muslim.
“Predictibly, the post brought out cries of indignation from people upset that Muslims would be offended (yet again). But missing in the report was the name of the purported website, why it was considered authoritative on the matter, or any actual offended Muslims (our straw poll garnered a collective shrug, along with much respect for Steve Jobs, himself the son of an Arab). It’s not the first time the controversial organisation has selectively framed an issue to show Muslims in a less than positive light, nor is it the only instance of pre-emptive outrage attributed to Muslims in recent months,” Amanullah reports.
Amanullah reports, “In the case of the (selective) MEMRI account, where at least one Muslim did (allegedly) complain about the NYC Apple Store, it seems that whenever a lone Muslim says something incendiary – even when it is an anonymous person hiding in a cave somewhere – his words are taken to somehow represent all Muslims. When whole groups of Muslims issue condemnations of terrorism, they are treated as “brave but isolated cries”, or worse, ignored. In MEMRI’s case, the mainstream media has already begun reporting it as fact. When it comes to Muslims, everyone loves a rumor.”
Full article here.
Related article:
Apple’s ‘Mecca Project’ provokes Muslim reaction – October 11, 2006
Hey I dont’t like you either but I don’t complain.
MEMRI gets paid for this?
Nuff Said
Although I’m sure this will still continue the tirade of hate.
Nevertheless: Thanks MDN for the balance.
from http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35018 and reposted as a comment on altmuslim.com:
“It is transparent glass with an Apple logo in the middle and looks as much like the Ka’ba as the Pompidou Centre looks like the Great Pyramid. We have heard reports of Apple fans swirling around the cube hoping to touch the sacred symbol in the middle, but that is nothing to do with Islam and is entirely a different sort of creed.”
Too funny….
“When it comes to pants, everyone loves pants.”
http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=1906
Sigh. Seriously, who cares what “Muslims” think. Nobody pays attention to “Christians”, and they’re as unified, homogeneous and monolithic as Islam appears on your silly American (and, sadly, the rest of the English speaking world’s American-dominated) mass media.
Geometry exists outside religion. Finis.
Ok, I have read that Steve Jobs biological father was from Jordan. I don’t think they are considered Arab. Please advise. Plus, his Dad was red blooded American, right? My heritage is Danish, does this make me a Dane? No, I was born here and my parents are American. So, leave the Steve Jobs Arab connection in the dang dirt.
I agree with Pants
In truth the website
http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=1906
will teach us far more about the world than that silly article that started all this hoo-haa
Everybody is going to be offended by something, so I don’t see how it can be avoided anyway. Political correctness is so out of control it’s ridiculous.
I still say we should get thousands of mac fans to gather in New York and we can walk around the cube, chanting Apple is God and Steve Jobs is his prophet. It should be every Mac fan’s true pilgrimage.
Finally some moderate muslims trying to speak out. They need to step it up to a fever pitch though to drown out the terrorists.
Jordanians are Arabs. Unquestionably. And, believe it or not, Arabs (and everyone else) can be ‘red-blooded’ too, not just Americans. And yes, from an historical perspective, your Danish roots do make you partly Danish. The whole point is that Arabs see history and ethnicity as being much more important than Europeans and Americans do. So Steve would logically be a source of pride to many Arabs in that he is successful, well known, well liked and partly Arab.
Jordanians are Arabs, Like Palestinians are Arabs
“The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ʻarab) are predominantly speakers of the Arabic language, rather than a pure ethnic group, mainly found throughout the Middle East and North Africa.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab
You have Christian Jordanian Arabs, and Christian Palestinian Arabs
You have Muslim Jordanina Arabs, and ….
well you get the picture
Generally these Muslims & Christian Arabs have gotten on quite well over the last few hundred years..
Who cares if they are offended. “When in Rome.”
A lower case “t” looks just like a cross. I hope the use of this letter doesn’t offend any Christians.
This story was just the excuse Mac-using bigots needed to spew their hate speech on a public forum from the safety of their keyboards.
Zachcube:
Jordanians are ethnically Arab. Jobs though raised in America does have Arab as a part of his ethnic background.
I’m not sure how you’d classify Danes ethnically. Anyone?
Me I’m a mutt. Though mostly Korean.
Muslims suck. Period. Get your religion out of the middle ages. Geeze.
“Plus, his Dad was red blooded American, right?”
Only half of him, or when he bled. Oxygen, you know.
“The whole point is that Arabs see history and ethnicity as being much more important than Europeans and Americans do.”
Ummmm…study your history.
Before the Latin American were the minority of choice to pick on, you had in the US, the Italians, the Greeks, the Slavs (where the word slave originally comes from), the Irish, and the Chinese.
And ethnic issues still exist in parts of what was Yugoslavia, the USSR, and eastern Europe. Just take a look at the international discord between France and Turkey that is arising due to the “alleged” Armenian genocide.
So that’s why the stock went up today! Man, I was wonderin…
“the “alleged” Armenian genocide.”
And Hitler’s death camps didn’t exist, either, right?
“or when he bled. Oxygen, you know.”
Wha?
Okay, you’re gonna have to ‘splain this one to me.
Shit, what are all the God-Fearing-Muslim-Hating-Right-Wingers gonna do with this? Just when they get their hate all worked up…
Sol is that the word of God? If so are you the second coming?