The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Future development of Mecca aims to fit heritage Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:54 AM PST MECCA, Nov 10 — Future development in the Muslim sacred city of Mecca will be more in tune with traditional architecture, the mayor says, but for now residents worry that Islam's holiest sites are disappearing behind skyscrapers. The historic city, the birthplace of Islam, is studded with dozens of yellow and red cranes and metal scaffolding aimed at increasing hotel space and improving facilities to make the annual haj pilgrimage safer and easier.  Muslim pilgrims pray at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in this November 7, 2011 file photo. Future development in the Muslim holy city will be more in tune with traditional architecture, the mayor says. — Reuters pic "The building regulations in the city take into consideration the width of the streets, central locations and do not allow the building of skyscrapers... what was built was that," Mayor Osama al-Bar told Reuters when asked about the tower. Future projects "will be far from the grand mosque by 300 metres ... The buildings will have reasonable heights between eight and 10 floors and will have the Meccan style," he said. Within six years, the government hopes to reinforce the infrastructure surrounding Mecca's Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba towards which Muslims the world over turn in prayer, replacing congested narrow roads with new ones, installing foot bridges for pedestrians and a four-line metro. On Tuesday, Crown Prince Nayef, whose ruling Al Saud family bases its legitimacy in part on its guardianship of Islam's holiest sites, said the development that had already taken place would "be little compared to what will happen." "We want to evolve Mecca, not change it," said Sami Angawi, founder of Hajj Research Center and an expert on Mecca. Angawi, who is originally from Mecca, has not stepped into his city for the past two years because he is unhappy about the way that it is being transformed. "I love Mecca and cannot see the beloved (sanctuary) of the Prophet being destroyed and handled this way," said Angawi, who shares a belief with many Muslims that Mecca is a holy place where change must be made in a delicate manner. An hour before evening prayer, the marble floor around the Grand Mosque is hardly visible as millions of worshippers stand side-by-side, lining their prayer mats outside the overflowing mosque to reserve a spot in anticipation for the call to pray. The pilgrimage was once the culmination of an arduous desert journey over perilous weeks or months, but with the advent of modern transport, the number of hajis, or pilgrims, has risen to millions, gridlocking the city's roads and compromising safety. Deadly stampedes, tent fires and other accidents have several times caused hundreds of deaths, forcing the government to spend lavishly on new infrastructure. "For sure (the expansion) will be good for pilgrims because usually there are huge numbers of pilgrims, especially during prayer times," Ahdab Seif, an Egyptian pilgrim, said outside the Grand Mosque. Long-term projects around the mosque will include hotels, malls and cafes. Developments in the suburbs include housing estates and a park for residents who have been made to relocate from the city centre. "Mecca is known to be an old city ... it has some old haphazard buildings located near the Grand Mosque and this project will reshape the face of Mecca and raise the capacity and services of the city," Bar said. "By 2020 we hope that results will be visible as major parts of the projects will be complete," he said, sitting behind his wooden desk at the Mecca municipality. Among the announced projects, which will cost more than US$30 billion (RM93 billion), is a historic expansion of the Grand Mosque to add 400,000 square metres and add shaded areas to shelter worshippers from the scorching desert sun. The clock tower of the King Abdulaziz Endowment, which is visible for miles around and stands next to the Grand Mosque, has been the focal point of criticism. "What is not nice is that the outside design is not traditionally Arabic... What they created looks like the buildings in Australia, it does not give a feel of Arabs and Mecca," said Wafa Sbbet, 50, who came from Sydney for the haj. The tower, which overlooks the Kaaba, was built over a demolished 18th-century Ottoman fort on a prominent Mecca hillside, now flattened to the ground. "This is a sanctuary ... My objection is not about expansion, or increasing capacity for pilgrims or developing Mecca. My objection is about how it is done," Angawi said. "This tower does not respect the dignity, sanctity and culture of the Kaaba ... it has demolished a whole mountain." Mecca residents, who once lived a few steps from the Grand Mosque, say they are being pushed away from the city centre to make way for hotels and restaurants that will cater to visiting pilgrims. A square foot of land around the Grand Mosque has in some cases reached up to US$18,000, Bar said, significantly higher than average prices of around US$4,420 in Monaco. Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle could not corroborate those prices but confirmed that the land around the Grand Mosque is the most expensive real estate in the world. "Mecca is the heart of the Islamic world... what we are doing is changing the heart from a natural heart to a mechanical one," Angawi said. "Now we should review and stop any project that does not respect the scale of the Kaaba and the environment of the holy sanctuary ... Take the bulldozers and dynamites out of Mecca." — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Religious minorities put faith in Tunisia’s democracy Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:43 AM PST TUNIS, Nov 10 — Minority Jews and Christians are putting their faith in Tunisia's nascent democracy to ensure its new Islamist-led leadership respects their rights in this traditionally secular state. Religious minorities in the Arab world have mostly lost out when dictators are toppled and radical Islamists exploit the power vacuum to attack non-Muslims. The targeting of Christians in Iraq and Egypt constitutes a frightening example.  File photo of Tunisians chanting slogans during a demonstration against Ennahda in Tunis on November 2, 2011. The moderate Ennahda won almost 42 per cent of the vote in the October 23 election for a constituent assembly. — Reuters pic "The Tunisian people, including the Jews, have understood that democracy is the best solution for everybody," said Khelifa Attoun, a Tunis businessman who is vice-president of the local Jewish community. "The democratic spirit is there," said the Jordanian-born Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tunis, Maroun Lahham. "This is not Iran, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia — it's not Switzerland or Sweden either," he said. "This will be a real Arab democracy, with a Muslim colouring." Their cautious optimism echoed comments by Muslim analysts who expect Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that won 41.7 per cent of the October 23 vote for a new assembly, to substantiate its claim that Islam and democracy are compatible. "Ennahda is not going to throw away this opportunity that history has given it," said Sofiane Ben Farhat, a senior editor at the daily La Presse de Tunisie. Tunisia's religious minorities are tiny. There are only about 30,000 Christians, almost all foreigners of European and sub-Saharan African origin, and fewer than 2,000 Jews in a community that dates back to the Roman Empire. The outlook for them was not reassuring in the weeks after autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fell on January 14. A synagogue in the southern city of Ghabes was set ablaze on February 1. Two weeks later, several dozen radical Muslims massed outside the Tunis Grand Synagogue chanting "Allahu Akbar" and "The army of Mohammad is returning." Four days after that, a Polish priest was found murdered at his Catholic school in Tunis. But civil society responded with a 15,000-strong protest march down Tunis's main avenue on February 19 chanting "Terrorism is not Tunisian" and "Religion is personal." Police were posted behind barbed wire at the Tunis synagogue and at a Jewish nursing home in a Tunis suburb. It eventually emerged that Rev Marek Rybinski was murdered by a staff member after a wage dispute. Jewish leaders said the Ghabes synagogue attack looked like a provocation by supporters of the deposed dictator. "There was unrest for the first two months, but then the government was able to calm things down," said Tunis jeweller Yonathan Rakkah after an evening prayer in the synagogue. In early April, Israel announced a financial aid package for Tunisian Jews it said were in distress and eager to emigrate. Tunis Jews said only a handful took up the offer. Still, security concerns persisted. In May, only about 100 Jewish pilgrims visited the famous synagogue in Djerba for Lag BaOmer, a holiday following Passover that usually attracts 5,000 Jews from Tunisia, France, Israel and other countries. During the campaign for the October 23 election for Tunisia's new democratic assembly, moderate Islamists in the Ennahda party promised to maintain the country's secular state and respect human rights, women's rights and other freedoms. Among the 10,000 candidates was one Jew, kosher restaurant owner Gilles Jacob Lellouche from the Tunis port area of La Goulette, where many Jews live. "I wanted to break the taboo that someone from a minority can't get involved in politics," said Lellouche, who was not elected. "People saw me as a citizen who was getting involved. It all went very well." The Ennahda candidate in La Goulette visited the Jewish nursing home to reassure the residents and party leader Rachid Ghannouchi met the Tunis community's leader. The smooth voting process and the fact that Ennahda fell short of a majority, forcing it to seek a coalition with two secular parties, seem to have reassured the minorities. "Ennahda will have to follow the moderate Tunisian tradition. Jews have no problem with Ennahda, only with the salafists," Attoun said, referring to the minority of radical Islamists. "But Ennahda won't let them do what they want." "Everybody is watching Ennahda and knows what they have promised," Lahham said. "If they want to change anything, the street is there to protest." A senior Western diplomat in touch with Jewish communities around the country said they were not getting ready to leave. "Ennahda has gone out of its way to reassure the Jewish community," he said. "It's in Ennahda's interest both as a political party and as the leader of the next government of Tunisia to show that this tradition of tolerance continues." — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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