New Saudi currency features Al-Aqsa Mosque

The regimes in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi have got to go. And you know what? Each one of these regimes has serious internal difficulties that should be 'seeded'.

Does this mean that all future pilgrimages will be to Jerusalem, since the Saudis seem to be saying that al Aqsa rates a higher position than the Grand Mosque in Mecca?

I'm not sure how fair this is to the Saudis.

After all, the al-Aqsa mosque is inarguably holy to them. All they really did is print a picture of one of their holy places on their currency.

I agree the Arab media has elsewhere been doing a lot to deny that these sites were ever holy to Jews, but I fail to understand how merely printing a picture on the back of their currency constitutes a vile continuance of said argument.

PMK: Your latter also makes an appearance on their currency.

Matt you need to realize by printing something from another "soverign country" you are claiming something which is not yours. it would be like the US printing money with the Roman Catholic sites in Italy. Why do people such as Matt allow some "nations, peoples, religions" to give a pass to what is cleary wrong.

i fail to understand how these saudis are able to get away with murder. these guys can fund fanatical religious schhols, mosques, whatever, all over the world and they are never subjected to any scrutiny.

Matt:

Like it or not, the Saudis have no control over the al Aqsa Mosque. They do not exercise sovereignty over that area. It's not part of the kingdom. This wasn't a political statement. This is official government tender.

Of course no one is denying their ABILITY to put it on their currency, but the message it sends is not a good one.

Speaks volumes to the soveriegn reach of the dual ruled (cleircs/royalty)Saudi Salafist empire.

S.A. can truly claim stake to Palestine, and Iraq, Indonesia and Europe and very likely certain parts of America.

Ironically do Saudis even use Riyals? I'd think they have so many U.S. dollars this currency wouldn't be more than a collectors item.

Let's make Jerusalem accessible only to Jews and Christians. I mean Mecca's a muslim-only place. Two can play this game.

Posted by: Ynkedoodl2

Excellent idea. The Jews and Christians have been driven from Islamized countries where they have lived for centuries. Time for the shoe to be on the other foot.

To whose who say Jerusalem is sacred to Islam we can say: you can have as much access to the Temple Mount as Muhammad did: in your dreams.

Let's make Jerusalem accessible only to Jews and Christians. I mean Mecca's a muslim-only place. Two can play this game.

Posted by: Ynkedoodl2

Excellent idea. The Jews and Christians have been driven from Islamized countries where they have lived for centuries. Time for the shoe to be on the other foot.

To whose who say Jerusalem is sacred to Islam we can say: you can have as much access to the Temple Mount as Muhammad did: in your dreams.

Posted by: PMK

I disagree... kicking muslims out of Jerusalem was what the Crusaders tried to do. Again, doing the same thing is treating the symptom ( occupation of Jerusalem by Muslims ) instead of the root problem ( Muslim ideology centered on Mecca and Medinah)

Deny Muslims access to Mecca and Medinah - take the lesson of the Romans vs. Carthage instead of the lessons of the Crusades. Which effort sucessfully eliminated the root problem?

Deny Muslims access to Mecca and Medinah - take the lesson of the Romans vs. Carthage instead of the lessons of the Crusades. Which effort sucessfully eliminated the root problem?

Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses

Plague:

Roman soldiers burned Carthage to the ground. Who is going to burn Mecca and Medina? Do you mean we should invade?

How do you suggest we go about it? We have no access to Mecca and Medina.

Do we level Mecca and Medina from the air? What good would that do?

Do we deny air travel to Saudi Arabia by denying landing rights in the US to any airline which flies to Saudi Arabia? There are a lot of Arab cities with airports. It would be hard but people determined to make the hajj would find a way.

Do we deny Muslims who travel to Mecca and Medina reentry when they try to come home? This would be my preference because it would make Muslims living in America (Europeans don't have the nerve to try anything similar) choose between the hajj and their lives here. It would also remove a huge source of revenue from the Saudi government. Unfortunately it would also be unconstitutional because it would be a clear violation of the free exercise of religion.

Deny Muslims access to Mecca and Medina? Easier said than done.

American and European stamps showing the Western Wall, or Temple Mount (clearly identified as Jewish sites), or stamps showing, as a Christian site, Hagia Sophia, might at this point be consdered.

And what about a "Freedom of the Mind" series. It would have Spinoza, Milton (Areopagitica), Hume, John Peter Zenger, Elijah Lovejoy, and others, writers about, and also martyrs to, free expression.

Here are some who might be honored:

The editor of Jyllens-Posten
Theo van Gogh
Pim Fortuyn
Ali Dashti

If there is no rule against depicting on stamps those still alive then one can imagine honoring

Ibn Warraq
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Wafa Sultan
and others, some but not all of them signers of the St. Petersburg Declaration.

and anyone else who cares to brave it.

I suggest a new U.S.$20 bill with Mecca on the back with a McDonalds and Walmart built on the compound and a Jewish celebration occurring, with dancing Koesher pigs with flowers running around!!

Or the new U.S. $10 bill with just a simple nuke mushroom cloud over Mecca with a pretty sunset.

Private mints/publishers/home photoshop artists can create any "money" they like.

A purplish-tinged 3 dollar bill with the Danish editorial cartoon image of the Turban Bomb Mohmmad

*~@):~{>

on the front cameo,

and a decrepit Ka'aba on the back, with cobwebs everywhere, and no hadjis in sight,

would be a useful, pre-'worthless' currency.

(Anyone with the time and the software, take it away!)

Plague,

It's still easier said than done.

How many times did people try to wipe Israel off the map? They did it, literally. They changed its name to Palestinia. Jews were kept out for centuries but the idea of the Jewish homeland never died.

The Wahhabis have been destroying Meccan history all on their own for many years, saying that the veneration of buildings or an ancient place is idolatrous. They are making Mecca a shell of what it once was but the idea of Mecca as the birthplace of Muhammad and of Islam retains it power.

Mecca and Medina will not die even if we level them to the ground. Their history is written. Even if Muslims around the world prayed toward a nuclear wasteland five times a day, Mecca will not die. It's become more than the sum of its buildings and streets and mosques. Just as Christians and Jews don't NEED to visit Bethlehem or Jerusalem to carry on their faith, Muslims will discover that Mecca isn't necessary to practice Islam.

Although many of us would experience emotional satisfaction at the sight, infidels destroying Mecca will not discredit Islam as an idea. Only Muslims can do that.

Easier said than done.

You can't be a muslim and not pray at the ka'baa five times a day and try to visit once in your life. [salat and hajj are two of the 5+1 pillars and both have to have a viable kaa'ba in Mecca]

Plague-

And Mohammad, himself, made a prophecy that the Ka'aba would be destroyed (Bukhari Hadith 2; 26; 666).

May be become a real prophet with his final and only prohecy

Plague,

I found myself thinking about the Muslims who lived in the Soviet republics. Did they ever get to visit Mecca? There must have been millions (billions?) who never got to visit Mecca in their lifetime under rule from Moscow. Did not going make them less Muslim?

The zealotry of Judaism may have died but Judaism didn't. Judaism even survived the diaspora. It was stronger than the temple.

Plague,

I just think you're putting too much faith in the destruction of a few buildings in one spot on the Arabian subcontinent.

Maybe Islam is geocentric on Mecca, but Catholic churches are built so the congregation faces Rome.

Catholicism has evolved. Islam can, too. I'm not saying it WILL, just that it's not outside the realm of possibility.

You're assuming that the destruction of Mecca and Medina will cause a chain reaction that will result in the dissolution of Islam. It's too much to hope for. People who have vested their entire being in the belief in their own superiority will not be prepared to just give it all up. It's who they are. They'd rather die. Problem is, they'll take us with them.

PMK - I disagree with this:

People who have vested their entire being in the belief in their own superiority will not be prepared to just give it all up. It's who they are. They'd rather die. Problem is, they'll take us with them.

Nothing succeeds like success - the Japanese used to think they were 'the chosen' and superior. The country indoctrinated children into a martial-submission-suicide mentality similar to what the Palestinians and others are doing today.

The Japanese have changed. So will the Muslims when the pillars come crashing down on them. Some may want to die - most will want to live. You assume that 80% of the umma loves Death more than Pepsi.

Bullshit.

The zealotry of Judaism may have died but Judaism didn't. Judaism even survived the diaspora. It was stronger than the temple.

PMK - exactly - Judaism changed when confronted with a changed universe. So will Islam when faced with extinction (of belief).

Judaism changed when confronted with a changed universe. So will Islam when faced with extinction (of belief).

Plague,
Agreed. You were first saying that Islam would die of its own accord if only we killed Mecca.
There's a big difference between evolution and dissolution.

The Saudis may be making their own money, but they still prefer US dollars....