Perhaps Many of these contriversys could be avoided if people on both sides of the issue took the time to try to find out the facts etc.
There are people on both sides that seem to enjoy seeing people fight and hate each other over things they Altered or just plain made up..
This story was brought to my attention by a Sweet muslim lady that stumbled across it on the internet..
The story she saw was written as though the whole building was built as a possible insult to islam..
It claimed the project name was Apple Mecca,it would serve alcoholic beverages 24/7,and the photo provided showed the apple building covered in black and looked much like the kabah in mecca(A very sacred place to muslims)..
She was a little upset and ask why would they do that,we invesigated and found out…
What it failed to say was that it was a computer store,didnt sell alcohol and the black cover was just a temporary cover untill its unvailing..
Imagine that..
Why get upset over somthing intended to upset you?..better yet..lets get upset at someone for being upset..then watch it go from there..
Perhaps theres a lesson in this for us on both sides here that we should slow down,talk to each other rationaly,and find out whats really going on..
Then PERHAPS if we want or need to be upset,,
we should be upset at the people that made this up to upset everyone in the first place…

This is actually in response to Frankster’s comment.

First of all, I would like to make clear that I personally, as a muslim am not offended by the apple cube. It does not resemble the Ka’aba and like it was mentioned, the whole controversy was started by some nut.

To Frankster:

You have no right to go about insulting peoples’ faith and beliefs, especially when you know nothing about them. I could throw insults back at you, but I won’t stoop to that level. Hijab, a word you mentioned, is not only in dress but also in manner, the whole point is dignity.

The cartoons that the muslims went “crazy” over, were about our Holy Prophet, the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him and his family). For us, he is of higher regard than our own parents, siblings or anything that matters to us. If some cartoons were published about your father, or mother, would you not react?

When you combine Goebbel and crusaders, propaganda is what you get and this propaganda is far superior than Goebbel singular.

Goebbel was against jews, homos, gypsies and non-aryans. The current crusaders are against mulims.

If one looks back the history, religions were the bloodshed, not the salvation of mankind.

All religion is stupid but that doesn’t give anyone the right to go around insulting people for their beliefs.

MEMRI is an Israeli propaganda outfit as far as I know.  Their translations are said to be accurate but what they chose to translate reflects a bias.

MEMRI’s original story headlined, “Apple’s ‘Mecca Project’ Provokes Muslim Reaction,” had a photo of the project under construction when it was covered in black painted panels, making it look like the muslim holy site.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Ar ea=sd&ID=SP131506

The source of the MEMRI story was a video produced by an anonymous person purporting to be part of the Iraqi insurgent group “The 1920s Revolution Brigades.” Because of the widespread blog buzz about the story, MEMRI posted an update with a link to the video in their defense.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Ar ea=sd&ID=SP131906

Watch the video. Even if you can’t understand arabic, it does seem like one very stoned, nutbag trying to make a YouTube Vlog post.

So, there was a tiny grain of truth to the story, according to MEMRI.  Some lone nutbag in Iraq spewed some hallucinatory hatred.

Here’s what concerns me. How is that “provoking a muslim reaction?” Does one lone nutbag in Iraq speak for a billion muslims? Does Falwell, or Dobbs, or Hagee, speak for all christians?

It seriously calls into question the utility of relying on MEMRI as an unbiased source of information. But, since many people have come to assume that MEMRI is reliable, it tends to spread the cartoon characterization of all muslims as being irrational, violent, and a threat to the good people of the United States.

Things like this simply feed the Bush Fear meme.

I wish Larry Flynt would build a hardcore strip club shaped the same way and call it Club Kaaba-Cabana.  The dancers could wear a shoulder length hijab and nothing else but stilletto heals.

Imagine the fireworks. Nothing like watching millions of brainwashed people go stark raving mad over a perceived affront to their delusional belief system.

Is anyone surprised that people would believe the ‘fake story’? After all, the muslim world went apeshit crazy over some cartoons. All it would take is for osme Imam to call the apple store blasphemous to get the muslims rioting again.

If the Kaaba was made out of clear glass, I could see why they might be offended. Except they weren’t. I suppose this means the stories I read about Muslims being offended by the name of that mp3 file-sharing network, Kazaa, were also untrue. As were the fatwas issued against Rubik’s Cube because it’s a cube. And why Muslims are not allowed to travel to Cuba. (The name thing again...) Oh, when will I learn not to believe things I read on the Internet?!?

“...report that Muslims are offended by Apple’s new building in NYC...”

Muslims seem easily offended by almost anything!

Reminds me of a something an anthropology prof of mine once said back in the days when all sorts of chemicals being tested on mice gave the mice cancer. She wondered… “Has anyone considered that mice just might be cancer-prone?”

Some people can be easily offended by almost anything and make it their business to set about causing as big a stink as they can about it. It’s their life and they have a right to waste it any way they wish.

Others just brush off the alleged “offence” and go on with their lives, realizing, as I said elsewhere, just because they might not like broccoli themselves doesn’t mean that no one else should like it either! But that perspective requires the use of REASON and LOGIC and a BALANCED VIEW OF REALITY - a prerequisite that disqualifies many from enjoying the benefits of a grounded reality!