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Development in spotlight after deadly crane crash
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THE deaths of more than 100 people after a crane collapsed in Mecca have highlighted the controversial pace of urban development in the birthplace of Islam.
The crane toppled into a courtyard of the Grand Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during a thunderstorm on Friday.
It was one of several at the site in western Saudi Arabia where hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world have converged ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month.
A multi-billion-dollar effort was launched four years ago to expand the mosque to accommodate increasing numbers of pilgrims. But while the expansion of the mosque is widely welcomed, modern urbanization around it has garnered criticism.
Towering over the place of prayer, a different type of development has taken shape — gargantuan commercial projects which critics say have erased Mecca’s heritage and threatened its spirituality.
Local authorities, however, defend the city’s urban projects, which include rail and road improvements, as making visitors more comfortable.
“Mecca is not any ordinary city,” said Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of the Mecca-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.
He is concerned that the city’s many skyscrapers are “making it look like Manhattan.” Chief among them is the 76-story Mecca Royal Clock Tower and the huge Abraj al-Bait complex attached to it.
One of the world’s largest buildings in terms of floor space, the six towers in the complex include luxury hotel rooms and a multi-story shopping mall.
The Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel boasts 56 elevators and says “discerning guests have the privilege of choosing their rooms showcasing unrivaled views” that include the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque.
All Muslims face the cube-shaped Kaaba to pray, and walking round the Kaaba is one of the rituals of the hajj.
At 601 meters, the tower is the world’s third-tallest building. At its summit is a golden crescent moon and a four-faced illuminated clock. It bears the words “In the Name of Allah” and its size helps visitors at other holy sites locate the mosque and Kaaba.
Alawi is an outspoken critic of redevelopment at the Muslim holy sites, which he says is wiping away tangible links to the Prophet Mohammed.
“People visit the Grand Mosque to worship and to have spirituality linked to God. But it’s become a holiday resort,” he said. “It’s losing its spirituality.”
“You wouldn’t find this sort of entertainment anywhere near the Vatican. So why is it happening in Mecca?”
But Shaker Al-Sharif al-Harthi of the Mecca Chamber of Commerce defended the clock tower as “a landmark not only in Mecca but the whole kingdom.”
And Faisal al-Salmi, a teacher, said the city’s unprecedented construction growth has brought jobs and investment opportunities.
Fifty-year-old pictures of the Haram, or sacred site around the Kaaba, show a modest mosque surrounded by old neighborhoods. Many of these were razed in initial expansion projects for the Grand Mosque.
Four years ago, the late King Abdullah inaugurated a project to enlarge the Grand Mosque that will allow the complex to take roughly 2 million people.
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