Word: mecca
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...highways and spent billions upgrading the Saudi armed forces. To minimize friction with Muslim leaders, however, he constantly channeled some of the kingdom's vast oil wealth into religious causes. He carved out a place in Islamic history by supervising a $25 billion expansion of the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina. The King also poured cash into scores of new Islamic universities, which began churning out thousands of fresh religious activists. "But something unexpected happened," notes a former Western diplomat in Riyadh. "Instead of this wonderful utopia, where young men were attracted to academia to learn about Islam...
...rule. Fanatical Ikhwan, once allies of the al Sauds, rebelled in 1929, objecting to foreign influences such as the introduction of radio broadcasts, forcing Ibn Saud to crush them with loyalist tribesmen. In 1979 King Khalid harshly put down a fanatical group that seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, in a violent two-week clash that left 127 Saudi troops and 117 insurgents dead. The message of all these groups has been the same: pure Islam has been corrupted by the al Saud rule...
...find a taxi driver for the ride into Quetta, one I could trust to get me through the rioters. I settled on an old man who had possibly the worst cab in the parking lot. But he was a "Haji" - a Muslim who'd made the pilgrimage to Mecca - and he radiated a certain serenity. Besides, I thought the zealots in the mob would be impressed by his venerable white beard. Before he took my bags, he quizzed me: "Who is the Superpower? Allah, or America?" Allah, of course. "Get in," he says. "I'll get you into Quetta safely...
...Slate would be less strange, probably, were they not a few hundred feet from the piercings and Grateful Dead T-shirts of the Toscanini’s posse. And that hearty artifact from The Era of Male Harvard, Stonestreet, would not seem so conspicuous were it not for the mecca of grunge hip, Urban Outfitters, just around the corner. Nor would the surburban gauntlet of Bruegger’s Bagels, Starbucks and the Tennis Shop seem particularly anything if the unapologetically sketchy 7-11, with outspoken panhandlers in tow, was not immediately adjacent. Harvard Square is like a melting...
...find a taxi driver for the ride into Quetta, one I could trust to get me through the rioters. I settled on an old man who had possibly the worst cab in the parking lot. But he was a "Haji" - a Muslim who'd made the pilgrimage to Mecca - and he radiated a certain serenity. Besides, I thought the zealots in the mob would be impressed by his venerable white beard. Before he took my bags, he quizzed me: "Who is the Superpower? Allah, or America?" Allah, of course. "Get in," he says. "I'll get you into Quetta safely...