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Originally an auditorium, the Medinah Temple was built in 1912 in the Moorish Revival style, which appropriated the arches and domes used in Islamic architecture. In short, it looks like a mosque.\u00a0 Piling on the confusion, inscribed above the entrance of the building are the Arabic words \u201c\u0643\u064e\u0644\u0650\u0645\u064e\u0627\u062a\u0652 \u0627\u064e\u0644\u0637\u064e\u0651\u064a\u0650\u0651\u0628\u064e\u0629,\u201d which means \u201cThere is no God but Allah,\u201d taken from the first kalima of the Koran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cSocial media platforms in <\/span>Muslim-majority countries, such as Pakistan and Turkey, have been buzzing with [the] controversial claim,\u201d\u00a0 the Times of Islamabad<\/em> reported.<\/span><\/p>\nMuslims are forbidden to gamble, according to the Quran. Games of chance are described as a “grave sin” and “abominations of Satan’s handiwork” in the text.\u00a0 Some of the most strident voices have argued the casino is a direct provocation to Muslims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nControversial Aesthetic\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n But while the Medinah Temple has been, at various points, a concert hall, a circus, and a Bloomingdale furniture store, it has never been a mosque.<\/p>\n
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It was built by the Shriners, a Masonic organization that included John Wayne and President Harry Truman among its numbers. Shriners refer to themselves formally as\u00a0 the \u201cAncient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.\u201d But there is nothing Arabic about them. They adopted a Middle Eastern aesthetic for fun. The passage from the Koran appears on the door because it is a rip off of the Alhambra in Spain, which Muslims built in the 13th century,<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nFreemasons refer to their meeting places as \u201ctemples,\u201d adding to the misconception that the building has religious significance.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile the new casino is not a direct provocation to Muslims, the presence of the kalima above the entrance and the use of the name Medinah may still be offensive.<\/strong><\/p>\n Medinah, or Medina, in Saudi Arabia, is the last resting place of the Prophet Mohammed and one of the most sacred sites in Islam.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple has been causing a stir among some Muslim social media users since it opened last Saturday. That’s because of the misapprehension that it is a mosque.\u00a0 The casino, Chicago\u2019s first, is temporary and will exist until Bally\u2019s completes the construction of a permanent riverfront property scheduled to open in 2026. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":289856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18,86430,84511],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n