"He wanted to be famous, so he urinated in the well of Zam Zam"

Don’t know if the proverb really exists, but if it does this might be the appropriate way to characterise the Apple Cube incident, with many thanks to Tariq Nelson. What I’m talking about? Well via my email (on my internet pseudonym adress) I received several messages about reports in the Dutch media about the Apple Mecca:

This building supposedly looks like the Ka’aba and is the new Apple Store. According to MEMRI:

Apple’s “Mecca Project” Provokes Muslim Reaction

On October 10, 2006, an Islamist website posted a message alerting Muslims to what it claims is a new insult to Islam. According to the message, the cube-shaped building which is being constructed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in midtown Manhattan, is clearly meant to provoke Muslims. The fact that the building resembles the Ka’ba (see picture below), is called “Apple Mecca,” is intended to be open 24 hours a day like the Ka’ba, and moreover, contains bars selling alcoholic beverages, constitutes a blatant insult to Islam. The message urges Muslims to spread this alert, in hope that “Muslims will be able to stop the project.”

Since MEMRI did not give a hyperlink or other kind of reference, I thought I will search for those insulted Muslims myself on several Dutch forums such as Marokko.nl, Maroc.nl and Islaam.nl. There I did find some non-Muslims (but not many) who were very tired that Muslims seemed to be offended again. I did find Muslims who wanted to know more about it, but I did not found anyone who was insulted. Meanwhile the message of MEMRI had reached several Dutch newsites such as Quote and a blogs such as Molblog.

I did came across several Muslim bloggers who more or less ridiculed MEMRI’s take on this, such as Alt.Muslim, Islamicate, Indigo Jo, City of Brass and of course MuslimApple. Also Apple Gazette has a post on this issue. So yes, probably there is someone who might be offended by this (giving MEMRI some benefit of the doubt), but based on other sites we might as well say that Muslims just love Apple.

There is one problem with that of course. Perhaps I’m going to a project in the future about Muslims and Christians who feel offended because their religious symbols are attacked (in some way). But if you can’t find anyone who is offended…

UPDATE 1
Well I think you can find a few here

UPDATE 2:

You can find more about MEMRI at Aqoul: here, here and here.

You can find more about this Apple Cube at Dean’s World.