January 18, 2005
MECCANIZED (via Tom Morin):
A Fitful Relationship With Tech (Associated Press, Jan. 17, 2005)
Technology has changed the way Muslims experience the hajj pilgrimage, a rite required at least once in a lifetime of able-bodied faithful who can afford the trip to Mecca. Technology has also perhaps changed the way they experience being Muslims, as Islamic militants have popularly seized on the internet as a tool for publicizing their extremist, often violent, version of the religion.Dressed in a seamless white robe, Algerian pilgrim Tayyeb Bouguettaya circled the Kaaba several times Monday with a prayer booklet in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, reciting religious mantras in unison with his wife a continent away.
No Segway? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 18, 2005 1:20 PM
He never read 'Lord Jim,' I guess.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 18, 2005 3:18 PMSo why do they need to set up loudspeakers in places like Hamtrammack, Mich. when they could just set up a system to call all those Muslim cell phones five times a day?
"He only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases."
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 18, 2005 4:07 PMIf the annual quota to Mecca from Indonesia is just 220,000 (a factoid from the tsunami news), then how do the other 139,780,000 feel?
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 18, 2005 11:42 PMRemote control detonation is the form of new technology used by Muslims.
Posted by: Bart at January 21, 2005 3:36 PM