“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, 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,’” The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports in an article dated October 11, 2006.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: SJ on a popsicle st… This is a joke, right?

Apple Store Fifth Avenue opened as a destination, a “mecca,” if you will, meaning only “a place that attracts people of a particular group or with a particular interest” and we mean nothing else by the use of the word “mecca” — in fact, we’re sorry we used it already, but we did so only because the MEMRI story used the word and, oh, we used it once in a headline for the Apple Store Fifth Avenue. Let’s just forget about that one, okay?

As we were saying, the Apple Store Fifth Avenue opened as a destination on May 6, 2006, so it’s too late to “stop the project,” by which we mean no disrespect. The “Genius Bars” contained (below ground, not in the cube) within the retail store dispense Macintosh computer advice, when not being overrun with generally clueless iPod owners: NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ARE SERVED (to customers, that we know of, not including ourselves – don’t ask).

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue is not “a new insult to Islam” nor is it “clearly meant to provoke Muslims.” Instead, it is meant a paean to the cube, as the perfect form or whatever the hell, sorry… heck, Steve Jobs thinks it is – even though the perfect form is a sphere (again, we mean no disrespect to Islam; or Jobs for that matter; in fact, we’re probably wrong about the sphere… Yeah, we’re definitely wrong). You see, Jobs has a serious love of cubes (see NeXT Cube, Power Mac G4 Cube), you might even call it a cube fetish… uh… or not… um, never mind.) and it is clearly meant ONLY to provoke retail sales for Apple products (and those products from certain chosen ones, you know, like Belkin, Bose, etc.) to all people, including Muslims.

Jobs, we hope this is a joke, by which we mean no disrespect to anyone if it isn’t. No disrespect whatsoever.