Apple Computer Building Offends Muslims

[SteveGrenard]

The new Apple store apparently resembles a similar structure in Mecca known as the Ka'ba. Now Muslims want a lock on cube designs. What's next?

October 11, 2006
Report: Islamic site finds Apple store offensive

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., states that some Islamic Web sites take exception to Apple's cube-shaped building design (pictured above) and that it "constitutes a blatant insult to Islam."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/index.php?p=305

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."

 

[Foolmewunz]

As usual, your link leads to another link.
Do you know who MEMRI are?

 

[The Atheist]

The new Apple store apparently resembles a similar structure in Mecca known as the Ka'ba. Now Muslims want a lock on cube designs. What's next?

(Bolding mine)

I know, Steve; THIS!!

Muslims offended by Westerners use of onions!

Muslims claim this holy design as a cultural treasure of Islam:


Infidels who abuse the design in praise of Allah by eating vegetables shaped like a minaret will be beheaded in Teheran:


Mullah Abba bin Arna said here [link to absurd blogsite to create image of respectability] that while eating onions by devout Muslims was perfectly acceptable, Westerners and other infidel who partake of the holy vegetable are an affront to Allah and shall be senetenced to death.

 

[SteveGrenard]

As usual, your link leads to another link.
Do you know who MEMRI are?

Sorry I got it from zdnet, a well known computer biz site. Here is the MEMRI blurb:

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP131506

with a much better picture of the bldg.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Sorry I got it from zdnet, a well known computer biz site. Here is the MEMRI blurb:

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP131506

with a much better picture of the bldg.

Look into MEMRI. It's what a number of us are repeatedly pointing out. Here's an organization that mines for articles that will depict only the most ignorant, hateful, anti-western sentiments, and then disseminates them through emails and blogs.

Who founded MEMRI? What should that tell you?

 

[Zep]

Get a grip, Steve. ANY modern building of that shape matches the Ka'aba, and there are literally thousands of such building all around the world. And I don't think there have been a whole lot of protests from many Muslims. Unless they are as eager to make a stink out of nothing like you are...

 

[SteveGrenard]

anti-western sentiments, and then disseminates them through emails and blogs.

Their "anti-western sentiment" in this case is an "anti-eastern sentiment" because it demonstrates how intolerant and ignorant muslims are, now even re: the shape of buildings in NYC. This stupid story is just another symptom of the muslim world trying to flex its muscles and intrude on the internal affairs of sovereign nations not under their control. So what's next? Boycott the company, hold cartoon type protests 'till the streets of Manhattan run apple red with the blood of all Apple users? They can use the backside of their death to the pope signage. Or maybe they will just boycott apples.

If there is any truth to this story you know where they can go.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Get a grip, Steve. ANY modern building of that shape matches the Ka'aba, and there are literally thousands of such building all around the world. And I don't think there have been a whole lot of protests from many Muslims. Unless they are as eager to make a stink out of nothing like you are...

Now I am making the stink? Get your attributions straight. I am not MEMRI. Or have you signed up as a shoot the messenger type as well? The problem with all the politically correct types out there is that one day you will wake up in a muslim country that has been shariaized and you won't know how you got there. Ask some non-Muslims in Nigeria.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Their "anti-western sentiment" in this case is an "anti-eastern sentiment" because it demonstrates how intolerant and ignorant muslims are, now even re: the shape of buildings in NYC. This stupid story is just another symptom of the muslim world trying to flex its muscles and intrude on the internal affairs of sovereign nations not under their control. So what's next? Boycott the company, hold cartoon type protests 'till the streets of Manhattan run apple red with the blood of all Apple users? They can use the backside of their death to the pope signage. Or maybe they will just boycott apples.

If there is any truth to this story you know where they can go.

No, Steve! This is an example of an organization that mines for any inflammatory statements it can find so that they can bring Islamist hatred and ignorance to the attention of blog-readers (first) and news-readers (if they are successful). MEMRI is notorious for this. They've been known to pick out the op-ed piece in a Middle Eastern paper that suits their needs, but to ignore the piece right next to it that supports cogent thought, moderation, and non-extremist views. MEMRI's on a mission.

The "stupid story", once again, is you relying on these obscure issues that should die a dog's death, and advancing them a few more days in the public discourse. Note to MEMRI: Mission (Part I) Accomplished!

Mission (Part II): Get enough bloggers to rant about the evil Muslims objecting to a building and send those articles to the Middle East and see if you can escalate it to protests of people burning Steve Jobs in effigy.

 

[SteveGrenard]

If they picked this story out of a muslim website or blog, and pulicized it here, meaning the U.S.,they are indeed publicizing the extreme intolerance of islam. For me then its a point of view, and for you it is denial of the the intolerance and ignorance of this "latest" offense. You can go on and on, citing the Danish cartoons, the new Danish cartoons, the Pope, Jack Straw and whatever/whoever else "offended" these people. Why stop at Jobs, why not jihad against all Apple users?

So while Christians cannot wear crosses the sign of a 5 pence coin working the counters at British Airways, those who would wear hijabs are allowed to do so. So who runs BA anyway? Pakistan? And I wonder which muslim workers were offended by the crosses worn by their co-workers.

Here are some more stories, same source, including criticism of MEMRI for doing what you suggest. Frankly if there is any truth to this inane criticism by muslims about this building I am glad they did it:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35018


http://www.nypost.com/seven/1014200...ecca_big_stink_regionalnews_patrick_white.htm


http://www.informationweek.com/hard...cleID=193300063&subSection=Macintosh+Platform

 

[BobK]

Their next target will probably be Rubik's Cube.

 

[Foolmewunz]

If they picked this story out of a muslim website or blog, and pulicizes it here, meaning the U.S.,they are indeed publicizing the extreme intolerance of islam. For me then its a point of view, and for you it is denial of the the intolerance and ignorance of this "latest" offense. You can go on and on, citing the Danish cartoons, the new Danish cartoons, the Pope, and whatever else "offended" these people. Why stop at Jobs, why not jihad against all Apple users?

So while Christians cannot wear crosses the sign of a 5 pence coin working the counters at British Airways, those who would wear hijabs are allowed to do so. So who runs BA anyway? Pakistan? And I wonder which muslim workers were offended by the crosses worn by their co-workers.

Stay on topic, please. I'm old and addled and can't leap-frog across the Cartus Illogicus as well as I used to. Before we get into beheadings and rich people owning guard dogs, let's get back to MEMRI.

You, as usual, link a seemingly legitimate story (with a direct link embedded to MEMRI) that leads back to an organization with a known bias. MEMRI is a disinformation service. They are better funded than you, so better at it than you. Their avowed mission is to pick out the extreme statements and spread them. They pretend to have an interest in also promoting moderate viewpoints, but that's sort of The Spook Who Sat By the Door, IMHO. They want to incite rancor and anti-Islamist sentiment.

You agree with them. That is your prerogative. It's my prerogative to point out to innocent bystanders that your Andy Rooney bit (Didja ever wonder why Islamists hate life as we know it?) is never as innocent as your initial post in a thread, and that within two to four posts, minimum, you'll be on your Islamists Are Evil soap box. Oh, sometimes you moderate it by adding "extremist" as a modifier, but not before you've broad-brushed an entire faith (not a race, as we agree... a "faith").

BTW, MEMRI are not necessarily faith-biased. Their agenda is simply political, and the anti-Islamist sentiments merely play into that hand.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Their next target will probably be Rubik's Cube.

Probably. And Information Week also reported:

Muslim groups have criticized MEMRI for seeking and disseminating the most extreme statements from the Muslim world.

For me this translates into trying to suppress Muslim extremist views so that non-muslims remain ignorant of them.

 

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

The problem with all the politically correct types out there is that one day you will wake up in a muslim country that has been shariaized and you won't know how you got there.

According to the Statistical Abstract of the US, in 2001 there were 207,980,000 Christians (all denominations) in the US, and only 1,104,000 Muslims. Athiest/Agnostic/Secular totaled 1,995,000. Get a grip.

 

[The Atheist]

For me this translates into trying to suppress Muslim extremist views so that non-muslims remain ignorant of them.

Mate, that's priceless! To any halfway sane human, that would translate into not wanting to have the most insane ideas promulgated. Much in the way that the US Government would like people not to get their information about American attitudes to other races from the KKK. Do you have bad dreams about the bad Mullahs, Steve? Wake in a cold sweat having just escaped the clutches of the Saudi religious police?

<<wipes tears of laughter and moves slowly away, still chuckling>>

 

[webfusion]

again, The Atheist with his laughing dog.

Let's watch this story, and see where it leads, OK?
It is not completely "insane" to believe that Apple is about to face some serious problems from radical islamists who are always looking for new ways to promulgate their ideology, in violent fashion.

 

[Zep]

Now I am making the stink? Get your attributions straight. I am not MEMRI. Or have you signed up as a shoot the messenger type as well? The problem with all the politically correct types out there is that one day you will wake up in a muslim country that has been shariaized and you won't know how you got there. Ask some non-Muslims in Nigeria.

Sadly, I'm not a "politically correct type", as you so quaintly put it. So you obviously aren't addressing your remarks to me.

And Nigeria as an example of a modern progressive country "overtaken" somehow by Muslims?! Goodness me! Are you serious?

And you seriously do think that no-one would notice a sudden influx of Shari'a based laws in any western country? Do you think that they can be simply dropped there completely unnoticed by, oh...parliament, for example? And that the police force will suddenly acquire machetes overnight and go about chopping hands of adulterers?

Weird, Steve. I don't know how your mind works...

 

[The Atheist]

again, The Atheist with his laughing dog.

Let's watch this story, and see where it leads, OK?
It is not completely "insane" to believe that Apple is about to face some serious problems from radical islamists who are always looking for new ways to promulgate their ideology, in violent fashion.

You're a funny wee bloke! You going to follow me around and pick on every post? You'll have to try bloody hard, that's for sure.

Yes, it's possible Islam might attack Apple because of their building.

It's also possible that Rubik's Cube offends them.

It's also possible that onions will cause the start of WWIII between the West and Islam.

It's also possible that SteveGrenard will stop being a paranoid racist and seeing Islamist terrorists under every bed.

No, actually, you can strike that last one out, that will never happen....

 

[Foolmewunz]

Jeez, I gotta get a bigger screen than this laptop. I just spent twenty minutes googling on "The Atheist and His Laughing Dog", thinking it was a neo-post-constructivist rock band. (It'd be a good name, you have to admit.)

Anyhow, so where were we?

Oh, yes. Steve was going to show us some more dubious links to show that there is a MWO (Muslim World Order) out there, sneaking hated Islamist law into the Constitution.

BTW, was there some reference to Islamist sensitivities in the "BA bans crucifixes" article? Or was this another GLOF (Grenier Leap of Faith).

Claus(I know you'll be here sooner or later), can I copyright that.... A new skeptiterm......
GLOF - V, intr. the act of reading an article on (say) lower sales on lemon meringue pies during Channukah, and linking to an article in the Speedbump, Arizona Daily Clarion, about the number of lemons grown in Israel, and then sub-linking to an article in Skinheads Are KKKool about evil Joos.



ETA: MEMRI, Steve. Have you looked them up to see the company you're keeping?

 

[gtc]

No, Steve! This is an example of an organization that mines for any inflammatory statements it can find so that they can bring Islamist hatred and ignorance to the attention of blog-readers (first) and news-readers (if they are successful). MEMRI is notorious for this. They've been known to pick out the op-ed piece in a Middle Eastern paper that suits their needs, but to ignore the piece right next to it that supports cogent thought, moderation, and non-extremist views. MEMRI's on a mission.

The "stupid story", once again, is you relying on these obscure issues that should die a dog's death, and advancing them a few more days in the public discourse. Note to MEMRI: Mission (Part I) Accomplished!

Mission (Part II): Get enough bloggers to rant about the evil Muslims objecting to a building and send those articles to the Middle East and see if you can escalate it to protests of people burning Steve Jobs in effigy.

Any call for violence against the West is wrong.

Any call for violence against Jews is wrong.

It doesn't matter if there is an article next to it which calls for dialogue with the West or dialogue with the Jews.