Di Mekah pula, globalisasi modal, kapitalisme dan konsumerisme subur berkembang hasil limpahan rezeki petroleum, lantas bermegah membangunkan kota moden dengan merobohkan warisan sejarah ketamadunan Islam yang amat penting di kota kelahirannya itu.
Al-Sudais has also been an active proponent of anti-Islamic, anti-historical, and anti-cultural schemes for the desecration of Mecca by the construction of new high-rise buildings around the Grand Mosque and the Ka'bah, the most sacred Islamic structure, to which all Muslims turn in prayer. Saudi Wahhabis, obsessed with a gigantism in construction reminiscent of Stalinist Russia, have already erected a huge "royal clock tower" that overlooks the Ka'bah, and has a face even larger than the Ka'bah itself.
The spending spree in Mecca and the second holy city Medina is valued at some $120 billion over the next decade and at present there are $20 billion of projects underway in Mecca alone, according to Banque Saudi Fransi. A square metre land in Mecca costs some 50,000 riyals ($13,333).
“If people are in a good position they should stay close to the mosque,” said Farhad Yaftali, a 25-year-old pilgrim from an five-strong Afghani business family in Dubai who paid $15,000 each. “It’s good to have a room to rest and do wudu (ablution),” he said, sipping tea in the cafe of the same five-star hotel.
The Saudi government is proud of the development, made possible by the country’s vast wealth accrued from its oil resources. The work is the latest stage in mosque expansions to accommodate pilgrims that stretch back decades. “In the past 10 years, we’ve seen a big rise in pilgrims. This year the number of pilgrims will rise by 20 per cent,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz told a news conference in Mecca this week.
“Work to further improve the level of services to pilgrims of the House of God is continuing,” he said. Hoteliers say they expect more than three million pilgrims, maybe even four.
Many Saudi intellectuals, mainly from the Mecca region, are disturbed by the government’s plans, which diplomats in Riyadh say have been approved only by senior clerics away from public scrutiny.
Saudi newspapers and Islamist blogs have engaged in some debate about the building frenzy, but no criticism comes from the top Saudi scholars who are allies to the Saudi royal family in governing the kingdom — which has no elected parliament.
“One cannot help but feel sad seeing al-Kaaba so dot-small between all those glass and iron giants,” said novelist Raja Alem, whose recent novel Tawq al-Hamam (The Doves Necklace) exposes destruction of historic areas, corruption and abuse.
“Long before Islam, Arabs didn’t dare live in the circle of what we call ‘al-haram’, meaning the sacred area (of the mosque),” she said. “They spent their days in the holy city and moved out with nightfall. They thought their human activities defile God’s home.”
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