Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Religion and Real Estate Vie to Get Closer to God

==An Indian Roller Consider it DUN exclusive==

With real estate prices taking a plunge in Dubai, a Sunni group with ties to the Saudi Royal family has been lobbying to buy the top floor of the Burj in Dubai at an undisclosed bargain price. The group, Dar al Dubai (DAD), plans to build a mosque in the top floor of the Burj, the tallest building in the world today.

"The top floor will be a prayer site for those who want to feel closest to Allah for a few minutes," said Dawood Ghazali, the DAD Public Relations Manager. "This is a mosque with the highest urban elevation on earth." Ghazali added that since the floor is accessible only via elevators, the prayer times will be restricted to 10 minutes per individual. "However," he said,"we will consider special requests."

The efforts to erect this soaring sanctum follows a global trend in high-rise sanctuaries. Recently, an influential group of Sikhs in Sirijaya, Malaysia, lobbied to establish a gurdwara in the top floor of the Petrones Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The move for the Petrones gurudwara, which was widely hailed as a reflection of the ascendancy of Sikhism in Malaysia, was withdrawn after the religious group and the developers of the Petrones Towers failed to reach a deal on the lease for the towers.

"We aim high,"said Ghazali, citing the charter of DAD,"because God wants us to."

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