| Tuesday, October 10, 2006 |
23:07 - Great, now I really have to make a pilgrimage
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD131506
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Say, remember that giant glass cube that Apple built on Fifth Avenue?
Michael Kenney sends this link to a MEMRI story that says... well:
On October 10, 2006, an Islamic 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."
Boy, where to start, huh?
I guess a good candidate would be to point out that these guys are about five months too late, if they want to "stop the project".
I suppose some people probably have referred to the Fifth Avenue store as "Apple Mecca", in the same figurative sense that a plumber would advertise himself as "the Rolls-Royce of plumbers"—which is where Rolls-Royce gets all its trademark infringement lawsuit money these days. I guess maybe we'd better stop calling things "the Mecca of _______", huh? Else we might get the theological equivalent of a lawsuit slapped on us.
I like how the fact that it's open 24 hours, "like the Ka'aba", is an insult too. I guess my local Safeway's cruisin' for a fatwa, and the 24 Hour Fitness, and Denny's too.
And I'm pretty sure they don't serve alcohol at the Genius Bar. (Hint: "Genius" isn't infidel-ese for "Sleazy".)
More seriously: I wonder if anyone is ever called to account for their statements like this when they turn out to be so stunningly false? I don't know how far behind the Jasmine Curtain you have to be not to realize by this point that the thing's just a computer store; just because something sort of looks like the Ka'aba when it's under construction does not mean you get to claim that it's "clearly meant to provoke Muslims". I don't know if they have an equivalent of the Boy who Cried Wolf story, but the more often we hear that something is "a blatant insult to Islam", the less seriously we're inclined to take it, y'know?
Unless, of course, that's the point. The less seriously we take these complaints, the more obvious it is that we're evil infidels spitting in God's eye who'll get our come-uppance someday soon.
But on the plus side, if Apple releases a press statement regarding this, it ought to be entertaining reading. Jobs might be the touchy-feely multi-culti type, but he's also not known for his willingness to compromise his artistic visions, especially for what he considers stupid reasons.
It probably won't happen, because this is about a posting on "an Islamic website", which probably means some kid on a forum who found this photo from half a year ago while searching Google Images for "black cube" or something, decided it was some sort of new inscrutable Western shenanigan along the lines of the Danish cartoons, made up some kooky but all-too-believable-to-the-credulous crap like the alcoholic beverages part, posted an incoherently-worded diatribe about it, and was promptly shouted down by the other people on the forum. But hey, you never know what kind of life these things can take on.
Imagine if this somehow becomes a big story.
UPDATE: Ah. "A full-sized iPod Bar which, presumably, will serve pink iPods blended with vodka." Thanks a lot, Mark Morford. Gotta be careful with the word "presumably" in this dangerous new media. And sarcasm gets lost in translation.
Via Kevin M.
UPDATE: Aziz Poonawalla says this is part of a trend, and that MEMRI is the culpable party here.
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Brian Tiemann
