"Apple angers Muslims" claims refuted
Trouble cubed
By Nick Farrell: Thursday 12 October 2006, 07:48
THE PRESS seems to have invented a story that fanatical Muslims are
fuming at an Apple building project which looks a bit like Islam's
holiest shrine.
The centre of the issue is a project which has been dubbed a "Mecca
Project" by a couple of bogs, which are mostly feeding off each
other.
Their comments were reported by the Middle East Media Research
outfit which monitors bogs and posts summaries. This summery was
reported "silly angry Muslims p*ssed off at Apple" by the more
yellowish press, when in fact it was a storm in a teacup.
By the time the press got to it, the story had mutated into
a tale that Apple was building a cube that resembles the Ka'ba, in
Mecca. It was going to be open 24 hours a day and serve booze. Some
boggers claimed that this was a slap in the face to Islam.
The building in question is being constructed by Apple in New York
City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in Manhattan.
It is cube shaped, but the reason it was covered in black was to
hide it until it was opened. 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.
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