Mecca and Medina questions for Muslims
Reader comment on item: A French Consulate in Mecca

Submitted by Karam Chand Ramrakha (Australia), Dec 26, 2005 at 17:56

I would like to know who built Mecca and Medina, and the 360 idols which Islam destroyed. Who were these idol-worshippers. Were they Vedic/Hindus.I would also like to know why non Moslems are excluded from this sacred site ?

Alone of all religions is a site so jealously guarded against non-believers ? Why ? I would also like to know why the rituals and religious practices of perambulating around a shrine, or holy water from Abe Zam Zam, or the cutting of the hair and two seamless garments is not practised outside Mecca and Medina. After all how a Catholic priest says Mass in Rome is what he would say in Timbuctoo, or a Hindu as he prays in Benares so would he pray in Britain.

And why is the 7 storey Ka'aba covered with a cloth ? Does the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina pre-date Islam ? And who are the Mahadevas who tried to take over the shrines ?

Karam Chand Ramrakha

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