[rjsimmon]

The author suggests that ISIS and movements like it are really about the control of Medina and Mecca and there’s nothing Western powers can do but stand by and watch.

Wonder if ISIS would blow up the Kaaba in Mecca?

[arthurus]

blow up the Kaaba

It might. All such things are regarded as pagan idols, even the Kaaba. That is why I scoff at suggestions that we nuke Mecca. The requirement of the Hajj is to visit Mecca. If Mecca is a glowing hole in the ground the requirement still stands and does not specifically include the Kaaba. The Arabians had no second thought in the last few years about razing the house that was the home of Mahomet in Mecca to build another inn for the hadji. Revering that place is idolatry. To the purists, that goes for any physical object or graphic representation.