"Apple angers Muslims" claims refuted Trouble cubed
By Nick Farrell: Thursday 12 October 2006, 07:48
THE PRESS seems to have invented a story that fanatical Muslims are fuming at an Apple building project which looks a bit like Islam's holiest shrine.
The centre of the issue is a project which has been dubbed a "Mecca Project" by a couple of bogs, which are mostly feeding off each other.
Their comments were reported by the Middle East Media Research outfit which monitors bogs and posts summaries. This summery was reported "silly angry Muslims p*ssed off at Apple" by the more yellowish press, when in fact it was a storm in a teacup.
By the time the press got to it, the story had mutated into a tale that Apple was building a cube that resembles the Ka'ba, in Mecca. It was going to be open 24 hours a day and serve booze. Some boggers claimed that this was a slap in the face to Islam. 
The building in question is being constructed by Apple in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in Manhattan. It is cube shaped, but the reason it was covered in black was to hide it until it was opened. It is transparent glass with an Apple logo in the middle and looks as much like the Ka'ba as the Pompidou Centre looks like the Great Pyramid.
We have heard reports of Apple fans swirling around the cube hoping to touch the sacred symbol in the middle, but that is nothing to do with Islam and is entirely a different sort of creed.
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