# Do the cities of Mecca or Medina hold any governing power over Islam?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-cities-of-mecca-or-medina-hold-any-governing-power-over-islam/697876>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-cities-of-mecca-or-medina-hold-any-governing-power-over-islam/697876 "2014-09-08T16:29:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-cities-of-mecca-or-medina-hold-any-governing-power-over-islam/697876/21 "2014-09-09T05:33:16Z")

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> [@nani](#):
>
> Mecca and Medina were sacked before, and the Black Stone stolen and the Zamzam well and other sites desecrated. It was eventually ransomed back. The perpetrators, known today as the Qarmatians, were a pretty interesting bunch. More recently, in 1979 the Kaaba was seized by radical militants and held for a couple of weeks before the Saudis took it back with the help of some French (or maybe Pakistani) commandos.

Interestingly, the Grand Mosque had been heavily renovated by the bin Laden construction company prior to the assault, so Salem bin Laden (patriarch of the family and Osama’s half-brother) reportedly was on site to help the commandos, particularly with the blueprints of the tunnels and rooms.

The bin Laden construction firm was also contracted in the project renovate Mecca to alleviate the increased numbers of pilgrims – leading to the destruction of many historic sites.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-cities-of-mecca-or-medina-hold-any-governing-power-over-islam/697876/22 "2014-09-09T11:19:10Z")

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The bin Ladens have their fingers in pretty much every major construction project in the Kingdom, so its to be expected.

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-cities-of-mecca-or-medina-hold-any-governing-power-over-islam/697876/23 "2014-09-09T11:39:53Z")

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> [@jtur88](#):
>
> The cities have no more governing power than the City of Washington or the Council of the District of Columbia has governing power over the United States. Municipal administrations only have power over things like zoning regulations and parking meters.

Nitpick: The “City of Washington” has no governing power over anything. The only jurisdiction with any actual governmental operation in the municipality is the District of Columbia. The City of Washington effectively ceased to exist a long time ago.

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