Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas'

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Re: Mecca for the rich: Islam’s holiest site ‘turning into Vegas’

@Marmalade

The mosque does need expansion though. It simply isn’t big enough right now to accomodate all the pilgrims and worshippers. Performing umrah is a very difficult task during the busier times of the year. Tawaf can be suffocating. I remember I almost got trampled when I went to perform Tawaf during Hajj a couple of years ago. There simply isn’t enough space. While I don’t condone the construction of ritzy hotels and towers around Haram at all, I welcome the expansion of Haram. It’s sad that historical sites are being lost but you’ve got to get with the times and accomodate the world’s Muslims. And those public toilets underground are meant for worshippers! Where are they supposed to use the bathroom and perform wudu when they visit the mosque? Do you all have any alternate solutions? Where should all the worshippers go? Should they all barred from entering the mosque?

Everyone loves to badmouth Saudi Arabia but I wonder how many other Muslim countries are able accomodate Hajj the way they do? The country may have several faults but mashAllah when it comes to things like these I have no complaint against them. God bless that country =)

EDIT-I hope they don’t wipe away the grave site. didn’t see that

They could have built a level above and expanded without touching the original sites for mosque expansion, for accommodation, high-rises make sense due to land issues, they could make it a little farther out though. The challenge now is that how do u expand when you have massive hotels in the way?

Building and expanding is fine, but they have to preserve history, how about markers for sites, forget preserving anything but critically important sites, at least mark the sites, move any original material to a museum.