[rikacomet]

It is not a place of entertainment or sight-seeing. Hajj is a Farz for Muslims. Anyone who enter's Mecca ought to do so with the thought of his Lord on him, seeking redemption and forgiveness.

Or Would you worship your Lord only if it is 'entertaining to you'?

[chippy]

There is a Dunkin Donuts right next to the Great Mosque.

Contemplate that.

(edits - seriously, I do. It's fascinating, the hotels, the logistics, the consumerism, the souvenier stalls, the clash of cultures, the clash of what islam means to different people around the world and the Saudi's interpretation of it. And then there's the western food chains, KFC is there, Dunkin Donuts are there, all halal of course).

[notNow]

Hajj & Umra esp. in Ramadan for Saudi is all about the $$ even if it hates to admit it so the consumerist side to these events or religious duties don't surprise me a bit as Saudis view them as an enterprise and are doing the best they could to collect as much dough as possible from these people to add to their coffers and make a killing in the process.

[dalke]

It's perfectly fine to say that an area is reserved only for adherents to a given religion. But your response incorrectly generalizes your personal beliefs as if they are true of all religions.

Non-Catholics can enter the Vatican. Certainly you don't think the Vatican exists only to entertain, do you?

As a core part of the Sikh faith, "the Harmandir Sahib is open to all persons regardless of their religion, colour, creed, or sex." (Quoting Wikipedia.) Do you really think that makes it solely a place for sight-seeing?

[mangamadaiyan]

What makes you think it's for entertainment? Why are you so touchy? Plenty of people who don't believe in Churches or other places of religious worship still visit them, purely out of curiosity if not anything else.

Your last question is in extremely bad taste - and I say this as a non-believer.

[aws_ls]

I know you are saying it in earnest, and good for you. But I dislike the preachy tone 'Hajj is a Farz for Muslims. Anyone who enter's Mecca ought to do so with the thought of his Lord on him'. When you do this, you ignore lots of non-practicing Muslims, who are cultural Muslims, and like to preserve the identity. So they may be interested to visit Mecca, not with your kind of zeal, but just out of exploratory interest. The narrow vision of what 'ought to' happen, is very exclusive and purging. A bit like the Wahabi kingdom of KSA.

I totally agree with GP, it should be open for all, including Non-Muslims, lapsed Muslims and everybody.

[rikacomet]

Being a Muslim is to bow one's will to the Almighty. There is no such thing Wahabi/Hijji/Cultural Muslims. This is cleared in the Quran, that the religion chosen for us is Islam, not Islam Version A or Version B.

A Muslim will enter it knowing its importance, and though he may not be perfect in conduct, he would ought to ask for forgiveness.

Non-Muslims would naturally move about naturally, and end up doing things they do not know the gravity of, and over that not ask for forgiveness (from Allah). This is the reason in plain words.

For the Non-Muslims, my op stays as it is. Just because you are interested in sightseeing Mecca, doesn't mean we undo our own vows. Yes it is a beautiful place, you wanna watch it? Buy the tickets: "There is only one God, and there is no other God, that is the way straight". And you should be gladly allowed to sight see or pray.. whichever you want. Mecca's Hospitality would be yours.

[aws_ls]

>Being a Muslim is to bow one's will to the Almighty. There is no such thing Wahabi/Hijji/Cultural Muslims. This is cleared in the Quran, that the religion chosen for us is Islam, not Islam Version A or Version B.

Again, that's a black and white view of things, and violates the live and let live golden rule. Not just now, right after the death of the prophet Islam began to diverge. The Quran, itself was assembled into a book, after his death, during the 1st or 2nd caliphs time.

You should read up on Islamic history. The general populace has had several ebbs and highs in the nature and intensity of their belief, based on context and time.

Islamic history also has had a lot of free thinkers, even in medieval times like Al Ma'aari[1] and Ibn Rushd[2]. I also learnt, that there were liberal Muslims in 15th century Andulus-Spain, from a fascinating book by Tariq Ali[3].

I also read this recent article on 'free thinkers in Islam'[4]

Not sure if you know, the Turkish nobel prize winning author, Orhan Pamuk, also identifies himself as a cultural Muslim.

So you can't wish away the diversity and free thought. Currently we seem to be going through a phase of high tide in intensity of belief. You may be surprised to see it ebbing away in the coming decades. Just my view.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%CA%BFarri

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_of_the_Pomegranate_Tre...

[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/islamic-his...

[dalke]

Abdus Salam, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, founder of Pakistan's space program, promoter of the peaceful use of nuclear power in Pakistan, advocate of scientific research by and for the developing nations.

Abdus Salam, devout Muslim, who quoted from the Quran in his Nobel Prize speech.

Abdus Salam, part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, declared non-Muslim by the Pakistani Parliament in 1974. Despite being rejected by his own country, and living overseas, he continued to support Pakistani scientists.

Abdus Salam was buried in a cemetery in Punjab, Pakistan, next to his parents' graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" until the local magistrate forced the words "Muslim" to be removed.

"Not Islam Version A or Version B" my ass. The only way to achieve that purity is by force; use threat of expulsion or death to enforce religious totalitarianism.

[notNow]

Since Muslim literalists quashed non literalists such as Mutazila back in the Middle Ages and Islam is in free fall at least from an intellectual point of view.

[mkaziz]

Mutazila thought was reintroduced into Sunni Islam by later schools of thoughts. It is most prominently included in the Hanafi madhab which predated the literalist movement.

[notNow]

What would make you think that a non Muslim person would be interested in 'redemption' and 'have the thought of his Lord on him' whatever that might be when visiting or exploring Mecca?

Sorry to burst your bubble but non Muslims in general are only interested in visiting Mecca for the historical value and contents that it holds nothing more.

That's why I warned the OP that there is not much to see as the Saudi Wahabis destroyed virtually everything of historical value in the city and the surroundings in the same fashion ISIS has been doing in Syria or Iraq and even this is becoming a very sensitive topic for Hijazi people, the natives of the region since those Bedouins from the midlands and desert are destroying their heritage while they sitting idle and getting away with it.