Replica of "Khana-i-Kaaba" built in Kenya, Mogadishu and Tunisia is un-Islamic

Some africans who claimed to be Muslims have built the replicas of Khana-i-Kaaba" in their countries.More than a million Muslim pilgrims packed Senegal's remote northeastern city of Touba on Thursday as members of the powerful Mouride brotherhood flocked to "Africa's Mecca" from across the world.
A senior mufti of Dargah-e-Alahazrat issued a fatwa on Friday against the East African country Kenya for constructing a replica of Kaaba, a day after issuing fatwa against the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack.
The fatwa claims the people who constructed the structure and the place where it was constructed were “un-Islamic”.“It is against Islam to offer prayer at such a place and those who do so are not Muslims,” said the fatwa issued by Mufti Salim Noori.
The Kaaba is a building at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque, Al-Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The fatwa was issued after a video showing people thronging the Kaaba-like structure was circulated on social media. “I received many phone calls and messages from people inquiring about the validity of the structure. I personally watched the pictures and video before issuing the fatwa,” said Noori.“Kabba is not a structure. It is a unique place, which is revered by Muslims all across the globe, and it cannot be changed. The construction of a similar structure is against Islam,” he added.
The mufti said the structure could only be justified if it was being used to train people for the Haj pilgrimage. “It is still not clear whether the structure is being used for training or for misleading innocent Muslims. It can be accepted as a model for training but in no case as an alternate to the holy Kaaba,” he said.
The fatwa has asked Muslims to boycott such structures.
A group of Ulama’a (Islamic religious leaders) Sunday staged a mock demonstration of the Hajj performance at Hodhan neighbourhood in the capital Mogadishu in order to acquaint this year’s Hajj-goers with how to perform the pilgrimage ahead of their actual visit next year.The clerics constructed a duplicate of the Kaaba, the structure in Mecca that houses the Black Stone, to familiarize the people with the correct performance of the pilgrimage. The volunteers in the mock demonstration were required to go round the Kaaba-like structure seven times. Trainers were on sight to correct them where they go wrong in the whole process. The performance of the pilgrimage is an obligatory pillar of Islam where every able Muslim is expected to visit the sanctuary city of Mecca and the Kaaba among other activities.
Kasim Sheikh Mohamed Noor who was among the team that orgernised the demonstration, said they decided to orgernise for the event following massive ignorance on the side of the Hajj-goers as they would come back from Mecca while not having performed the important pillar of the religion as per required. Kassim noted that Hajj guides—persons charged with directing the hajj-goers in their visit to the holy cities of Mecca and Madina and along towns that occur between the cities—have complained about the issue, saying only familiarization session would solve the problem. He said the initiative is practiced in many Muslim nations across the world where Hajj-goers are trained on the process.
“After we noted the problems that they go through after spending lots of money on the journey, we have taken it upon ourselves to familairise them with the whole process and how to go about it,” he explained. “We are aware of many Somalis who got stranded in Jeddah while looking for guidance, or a relative they came in with since they are not familiar with the process,” he continued, adding that most of them feel out of place when they are faced with such a challenging situation without a prior knowledge and proper training.
Overseeing the training was Sheikh Mohamud Suley who is a well-known sheikh in Mogadishu. He lauded the demonstration as fruitful, saying the training was timely and highly needed.
“Every prayer session requires training and knowledge before it’s actually done and the Hajj performance is not exceptional,” he said.
He said the participants were trained mostly on the Hajj activities, particularly where to start and where and how to end the Tawaf, the seven times circumnavigation of the Kaaba.
Mogadishu residents and the Somalis at large welcomed the initiative, but called for further training on other religious duties.
More than a million Muslim pilgrims packed Senegal's remote northeastern city of Touba on Thursday as members of the powerful Mouride brotherhood flocked to "Africa's Mecca" from across the world.Huge crowds moved shoulder to shoulder in the sweltering heat around the marble Great Mosque as devotees from Senegal joined with Mourides returning from overseas to pay homage to the Sufi Islam movement's founder, Cheikh Amadou Bamba.The "grand Magal", or "great pilgrimage" in Senegal's national tongue Wolof, commemorates Bamba's exile in 1895 by French colonial authorities, who feared his growing influence."This is an extraordinary day. People have come from across Africa, from across the world," said Abdoulaye Gueye, 39, from Senegal's southern town of Ziguinchor. "What you have in Mecca, the prophet of Touba recreated here. It is the same thing."Lines of pilgrims waited hours in the dust and blistering heat to enter the vast mosque, whose 87-metre (287-foot) tower dominates the skyline of Touba, a holy city controlled by religious authorities where drinking and smoking are forbidden.Dreadlocked disciples known as Baye Fall dressed in baggy patchwork clothes blew whistles and brandished huge wooden clubs to keep the crowds in order. Many shook silver begging bowls and demanded donations for their religious teachers, or marabouts.All over town street hawkers sold T-shirts and necklaces bearing the one surviving black-and-white photograph of Bamba, whose doctrine of hard work as a means to reach paradise has made the Mouride order wealthy and powerful in Senegal."If you pray here in Touba, God will listen to you," said Abdou Magib Sow, 64, who has been coming to the Magal since he was 19. "Every year there are more people."TRADITION OF HOSPITALITY "Tens of thousands of pilgrims arrived throughout the night as traffic jams stretched all the way through the countryside to the capital Dakar, 200 km (125 miles) southeast.Hotels are forbidden in Touba but residents have a proud tradition of hospitality and provide food and accommodation to pilgrims. Hundreds of beggars and cripples roam the sandy streets around the mosque in search of alms."Here I can earn enough to sort myself out, and then I will return next year," said Abdoulaye, a one-legged cripple bent over his crutches, who had travelled from neighbouring Mali.Inside the mosque, pilgrims bowed their heads against the mausoleums of Bamba and his four dead sons, slipping coins through the grating. The current Caliph of Touba is Bamba's last surviving son."After the Prophet, Cheikh Mamadou Bamba has been the person who has most influenced Islam," said Mamadou Sarr, a guardian at the tomb of Bamba's best-known disciple, Ibra Fall, the founder of the Baye Fall movement.Around the tomb, Fall's followers -- who substitute work for their marabout for the five daily prayers of Islam -- wailed the Arabic name of God in a ceaseless chant.The commercial clout of Mouridism extends far beyond Senegal. Many Senegalese overseas -v- including street sellers flogging fake name-brand goods in European capitals and New York -- are industrious Mourides following Bamba's strictures.From a tiny village at Bamba's birth, Touba and neighbouring Mbacke have become the second largest conurbation in Senegal after Dakar, with a population of more than half a million.Mouridism is also a powerful political force. President Abdoulaye Wade, re-elected last month, is a member of the brotherhood and travelled to Touba the day after he won power in 2000 to thank religious leaders for their support.
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