Although not a Muslim (but deeply attached to World Heritage) I was amazed at the news:
The sacred mosque of Islam should soon be destroyed to make room for a kind of concrete stadium ... only the Kaaba will be spared ...
Saudi Arabia destroys vestiges of Islam in indifference
"Imagine that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is being razed and replaced by an ultramodern concrete building in the shape of a spaceship ... Christians around the world would revolt and not allow ... And they would have massive support from politicians and intellectuals horrified by the prospect of such an act of cultural vandalism. "Thus begins the article of the Telegraph which explains that Saudi Arabia is destroying in the two largest holy cities of the Islam, Mecca and Medina, vestiges of an inestimable historical value in the most total indifference ... in particular of the Moslem world.
"In Mecca, the house of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives was demolished to make room for public toilets. And his birthplace could also be wiped off the map to allow for the completion of a grandiose Grand Mosque real estate project alongside a shopping center and skyscrapers, "writes The Telegraph.
In Medina, an article by The Independent reveals a megalomaniac plan to raze three mosques of the 7th century. "Ten years ago, a mosque belonging to the Prophet's grandson was blown up. Photos of this demolition were taken secretly and taken out of the country showing the Saudi religious police celebrating the destruction, "writes The Independent. These destructions are carefully calculated. They aim at transforming the pilgrimage sites into luxury tourist resorts with hotels and businesses and are also linked to the fact that the Wahabite sect, which conquered Mecca in 1924 and runs Saudi Arabia, wants to leave an indelible mark on the holy places of which she has custody. It also intends to prevent too much revulsion of buildings related to the prophet leading to idolatry.
But the real question is why no one protests, manifests, rises in the Muslim world against the disappearance of an irreplaceable historical and religious heritage. The same Muslim world "that ignites when Israeli archaeologists undertake any research around the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the third holy place of Islam," writes The Telegraph.
The answer according to the British daily is that attacking Israel is easy and that Saudi Arabia is scared by its economic, financial and spiritual weight. The West is not more courageous. The large exhibition at the British Museum in London on the pilgrimage to Mecca held from January to April 2012 made no mention of works and real estate projects. It does not even signal the construction of this great modern tower that disfigures the site, the second tallest tower in the world that rises to 600 meters and whose clock-shaped top evokes a distorted "Big Ben" of London. It is built right next to the Kaaba, the black cube that is the center of the most sacred devotions of Islam ...
http://www.slate.fr/lien/64353/islam-arabie-saoudite-mecque-medine-detruit-vestiges
The work will be carried out by ... the company Ben Laden(Sic!):
http://observers.france24.com/fr/content/20121128-l%E2%80%99entreprise-ben-laden-va-transformer-mecque-las-vegas[/ Quote]The Bin Laden company will "turn Mecca into Las Vegas" (...) "Building towers around the mosque is a lucrative investment" Hatoon Al-Fassi is a native of Mecca and a professor of history at the university of King Saud in Riyadh. The work in progress at the moment officially aims to enlarge the esplanade where the pilgrims turn around the Kaaba [the cube which is in the middle of the Sacred Mosque, editor's note] to be able to accommodate a greater number of faithful [ the works would make it possible to receive 220 pilgrims per hour, against 000 today, editor's note]. But above the new galleries will be built towers which will house hotels, restaurants and shopping centers. We already know what the mosque will look like after this work. In 2010 already, mosques dating from the time of the Prophet were destroyed to allow the construction of the Clock Tower [the second tallest tower in the world, it is in the middle of a hotel complex whose buildings count between 42 and 48 floors]. If we utter a cry of alarm, it is because we are not at the first destruction of Muslim remains. For thirty years, the expansion of the mosque has already caused the destruction of two-thirds of the historic site. The Ottoman galleries are the main remnant of the last third. There is already no trace of the houses of the companions of the Prophet, nor of mosques like those of Khaled Ibn al-Walid, which dated from the first years of the Islamic era. And if the house where the Prophet was born was turned into a library, other places were less fortunate: Khadija's house, for example, the Prophet's first wife and the mother of her children, was destroyed to make room for public toilets!
Small propaganda video:
http://piedlabiche.tumblr.com/post/495635485/la-mecque-2040-le-projet-dextension-de-la-ville
Worse it is actually 95% of the historic buildings of Saudi Arabia that have been demolished by the Wahhabi regime during the last 20 years!