{"id":289854,"date":"2023-09-15T11:35:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T16:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=289854"},"modified":"2023-09-15T15:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T20:26:53","slug":"ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Bally’s Chicago ‘Mosque’ Casino Draws Mistaken Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple<\/a> 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<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Casino
The Casino at Medinah Temple in Chicago, above, may look like a mosque. But it is not and never has been a place of worship. (Image: Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The casino, Chicago\u2019s first, is temporary and will exist until Bally\u2019s completes the construction of a permanent riverfront property<\/a> scheduled to open in 2026. And it\u2019s easy to see why it might be mistaken for a mosque.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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>\n

Muslims 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>\n

Controversial 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

\n

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>\n

Freemasons refer to their meeting places as \u201ctemples,\u201d adding to the misconception that the building has religious significance.<\/span><\/p>\n

While 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":"\nMisinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T16:35:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T20:26:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/\",\"name\":\"Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-15T16:35:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-15T20:26:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"The Casino at Medinah Temple in Chicago, above, may look like a mosque but it is not and never has been a place of worship. (Image: Chicago Sun Times)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Regional News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regional-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Midwest\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regional-news\/midwest\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Bally’s Chicago ‘Mosque’ Casino Draws Mistaken Outrage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino","description":"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino","og_description":"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-09-15T16:35:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-15T20:26:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/","name":"Misinformed Outrage Over Bally's Chicago 'Mosque' Casino","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg","datePublished":"2023-09-15T16:35:21+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-15T20:26:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Bally\u2019s Casino at Medinah Temple causes controversy because of its resemblance to a mosque. The building has never been a place of worship.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/medinah.jpg","width":1000,"height":562,"caption":"The Casino at Medinah Temple in Chicago, above, may look like a mosque but it is not and never has been a place of worship. (Image: Chicago Sun Times)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-chicago-mosque-casino-draws-mistaken-outrage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Regional News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regional-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Midwest","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/regional-news\/midwest\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Bally’s Chicago ‘Mosque’ Casino Draws Mistaken Outrage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289854"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289916,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289854\/revisions\/289916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}