October 2, 2005Where is Laura Z. Hobson now we need her. Here is the NYT promoting a travel real estate deal restricted to Muslims -- located in a city that has banned non-Muslims since it was founded. I wonder what the Public Editor will have to say?
New Tower in Mecca Is Offering Shared Ownership for Muslims
By FAYE RAPOPORT
Le Meridien Towers in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is scheduled to open early in 2007 as the first shared-ownership property marketed exclusively to Muslim travelers. RCI, a leading vacation exchange company based in Parsippany, N.J., will support the property with services that include giving club members access to RCI's worldwide network of affiliated properties.
Perhaps the Times has gone libertarian on us and come to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act's public accommodation discrimination ban. Or maybe it thinks that creed discrimination by an international hotel chain is the same as creed discrimination in a church or church school. If so, it should tell us and say that Gentleman's Agreement, which also attacked creed discrimination in the lodging industry featured bad social policy ideas. We'd like to know.
