[Updated 10/12/2006 8:34am] One of the pieces of news flotsam floating around the online Mac news sites today was this piece -- Apple's "Mecca Project" Provokes Muslim Reaction, originating from MEMRI and reproduced in its (brief) entirely below:
On October 10, 2006, an Islamic website posted a message alerting Muslims to what it claims is a new insult to Islam. According to the message, the cube-shaped building which is being constructed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in midtown Manhattan, is clearly meant to provoke Muslims. The fact that the building resembles the Ka'ba (see picture below), is called "Apple Mecca," is intended to be open 24 hours a day like the Ka'ba, and moreover, contains bars selling alcoholic beverages, constitutes a blatant insult to Islam. The message urges Muslims to spread this alert, in hope that "Muslims will be able to stop the project."
Being a rational-thinking Mac user, my bullshit detector was buzzing over this. Aside from the lack of any cites or references (just an anonymous "an Islamic website"), even the most casual geek knows that Apple's NYC store finished construction months ago. Throw in the fact that the only people calling the store "Apple Mecca" are self-professed wags, and that the Genius Bars in the Apple Stores don't serve alcohol, and you've got more than enough discrepencies to wonder if the (anonymous) writer was submitting a bit of stale satire.
As it turns out, MEMRI itself is not an innocent bystander in this mess. Instead, the self-proclaimed "Middle East Media Research Institute" has a long history of heavy-handed anti-Muslim bias, and -- surprise, surprise -- appears to have ties to the Israeli government as well. As uncovered in the UK Guaradian Unlimited:
The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.
Mr. -- or rather, Colonel -- Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
Retrieving another now-deleted page from the archives of Memri's website also throws up a list of its staff. Of the six people named, three -- including Col. Carmon -- are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence.
Among the other three, one served in the Israeli army's Northern Command Ordnance Corps, one has an academic background, and the sixth is a former stand-up comedian.
And yet, despite the "Muslims protest Mac Mecca" article being a clinker of stale silliness (now we know why the sixth staff member is described as a former comedian), that didn't stop various Apple- and computer-news websites from printing the story, nor did it stop assorted small-minded bigots who took it as an opportunity to drag out their knee-jerk anti-Muslim bigotry:
A joke? Nothing about Islam and muslims is funny. These people will not stop until all of us infidels and apostates are converted or dead...f'em!
Does anyone get the feeling some people deliberately go around looking for things to be offended about?
These people need to get over themselves.
BWHAHAHAHAHA what a bunch of morons. oversensitive crybabies! these guys make muslims look like a bunch of uninformed chumps.
I am tired of this. I really don't get the point. Will I have to throw away my coworkers rubicks cube if a muslim works at my office or the cube looking tissue holder in my bathroom because it has crayons on it.
*Sigh*
Using a Mac might make you immune to a lot of things, but stupidity isn't one of them. Any moron with money can buy a Mac as the above-quoted idiots demonstrate...
[Updated 10/12/2006 8:34am] According to TechWeb (by way of ifo Apple Store), MEMRI refused to identify the website that allegedly protested against Apple's New York Cube store. Sounds rather suspicious to me...
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