Asad Abu Khalil, another academic expert, tweeted: “Looks like (the crown prince) is building his Kaaba. Will he make it a new Qibla for worshippers?” At the same time, some people have paid special attention to the symbolic choice of the structure and linked it with Bin Salman‘s reforms to de-Islamize Saudi Arabia’s identity in the coming years. Intercept’s reporter Murtaza Hussain wrote “It is difficult to build a new Kaaba for capitalism alone.” Sami Al-Hamdi, CEO of International Interest, a global risk and intelligence company, gave his point of view in a video that with this work, the Saudi government essentially wants to shift its identity from the “Kaaba in Mecca” to the “Kaaba in Riyadh”. He also believes that Muhammad bin Salman’s action of standing on the Kaaba in 2019 was a sign of this movement.
In Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the construction of a large cube-shaped structure resembling the building of the Kaaba, has faced outrage and reactions from the people of this country, especially on social media. The giant building called “The Cube” has been recently unveiled as a major part of Riyadh’s urban development plan. Its physical appearance and resemblance to the Kaaba has become a great cause of controversy. Last Thursday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the launch of the New Murabba Development Company, which aims to make Riyadh the largest modern urban center in the world. In this project, the redevelopment of Riyadh’s historical vicinity Al-Murabbah “Square” has been declared as the main target. This area is named after the historic square shaped well. This business project covers an area of more than 18.1 square kilometers, which is about one third of Manhattan, New York.
According to the Arab News, the new square will include greenery, a museum, a hotel, tourist places, a university of technology, a multi-purpose theater and other entertainment and cultural facilities. The main structure of the new square is a large building, called “The Cube”. The Cube, as its name suggested, is a large skyscraper, which is a cube and is approximately 400 meters tall in each direction. Inside the cube is a special tower, which will rival the tallest skyscrapers in the world. The Cube’s creators want this massive structure to be the world’s most surprising project, which, due to its unique structure, is a place that, apart from being attractive, attracts a lot of attention to the virtual and digital world. In this report it is stated that the cube-shaped building is inspired by the “Najdi architectural style” of the Ale- Saud family’s homeland.
This major project will be financed by the Kingdom’s foreign exchange reserve fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), under Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan. It is predicted that the project will add about $50 billion to Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy and create 334,000 direct and indirect jobs. However, many Muslims on social media expressed different views on the project due to its similarity to the holy building of the Kaaba. We are only describing the reaction of Saudi users in this article. A user on Facebook named Muhammad Al-Hachimi Al-Hamdi said, “Is Mohammed bin Salman building his own Kaaba in Riyadh? A new “Kaaba” for fun!! He also shared a hadith about the emergence of a “devil’s horn” one day from the Najd region, which states that a devil’s horn will emerge from the Najd region.
Asad Abu Khalil, another academic expert, tweeted: “Looks like (the crown prince) is building his Kaaba. Will he make it a new Qibla for worshippers?” At the same time, some have drawn particular attention to the symbolic choice of the structure and linked it to bin Salman’s reforms to de-Islamize Saudi Arabia’s identity in the coming years. Intercept reporter Murtaza Hussain wrote “Building a new Kaaba for capitalism alone is difficult.” Sami Al-Hamdi, CEO of the global risk and intelligence company International Interest, gave his point of view in a video that with this work, the Saudi government essentially wants to exchange its identity from “the Kaaba in Mecca” with “the Kaaba in Riyadh”. He also believes that Muhammad bin Salman’s standing on the Kaaba in 2019 was a sign of this movement.
However, some other social media users have a different opinion and consider it wrong to compare the appearance of the new cube project with the building of the Kaaba. One user questioned, “If every cube-shaped building is a “New Kaaba”, then you will find hundreds of thousands of Kaaba in Riyadh, because we have so many cube-shaped buildings.” Another Saudi citizen accused those mocking the plans of being “Saudiphobic” and described the allegations as “stupid”. On the other hand, the debate between supporters and opponents of Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms in the conservative and changing Saudi society continues to show that the Saudi crown prince is taking rapid steps to de-Islamize the face of Saudi Arabia. There is consensus among sociologists on this subject.
Meanwhile, Bin Salman’s strategy for Saudi Arabia’s rapid growth, relying on the petro-dollar, is challenging, the latest example of which is the various reports in the global media about Nume City in recent months. . This super project has become a dead end for Bin Salman and there is a lot of news about the project being held back. The city, based on its already announced design, will be based on the latest technologies of the future and will meet its energy needs without fossil fuels like oil and gas. A 170 km long city called “The Line” will also be included in this project . The project is currently facing a $500 billion funding challenge, as well as environmental impacts. Due to this project, there are also problems such as forced displacement of regional tribes and human rights violations. What interests Bin Salman wants to gain from this project are also being debated and are being heavily criticized.
