101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 4: Islamic History – Reason 49
Circumambulation around the Ka’aba was originally a pagan ritual (and Islamic sources suggest that they did it naked – Sahih Bukhari 1665 and 1622*), as was running through the valley between Safa and Marwa.
* https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1665 & https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1622
The Ka’aba was originally a pagan shrine, housing 360 stones and statues of many different gods and beliefs. And pagans performed a hajj even before the advent of Islam. This comes from the Hadith.
Sahih al-Bukhari 4720
Narrated `Abdullah bin Masud:
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) entered Mecca (in the year of the Conquest) and there were three-hundred and sixty idols around the Ka`ba. He then started hitting them with a stick in his hand and say: ‘Truth (i.e. Islam) has come and falsehood (disbelief) vanished. Truly falsehood (disbelief) is ever bound to vanish.’ (17.81) ‘Truth has come and falsehood (Iblis) cannot create anything.’ (34.49)
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4720
Why is this a reason to leave Islam? Well, the argument here is about the Islamic claims you get whereby we were told that it was the pagans who were intolerant of Islam and that Islam is a tolerant religion. A critical analysis of the Sira shows that the pagans coexisted with all other faiths. In fact, Meccan polytheists coexisted alongside monotheistic faiths, including many Christian and Jewish tribes. There is an air of tolerance that you get from having Khadijah (Prophet’s first wife) and her uncle Waraqah Ibn Nufal, openly monotheistic, probably Christian, living in Mecca. What disrupted this atmosphere of coexistence? Islamic sources don’t lie. It was the Prophet openly preaching that pagan gods are useless and that the Kaaba is only for Islam, and some narrations suggest that the attacks on the pagan statues came from the Prophet and his followers. We know for sure that after the fall of Mecca, the Prophet banned non-Muslims, even people of the book, from entering the city. This practice still exists now. Only Muslims are allowed to enter Mecca. Non-Muslims are banned by the command of the Quran in the most insulting ways.
Surah At-Tawbah (9:28) in the Quran, which states: “Indeed, the polytheists are unclean, so let them not approach al-Masjid al-Haram after this, their [final] year.”
How does that contrast with the pre-Islamic arrangements? Which one was more tolerant and accepting of the others? That is a good reason to re-examine Islam.
Finally, take a moment and imagine Mecca without a Kaaba at all, no house for Allah, and your argument would easily be “because He is everywhere” – suddenly, no rocks, no problem, right? However, the Prophet wanted people to come to Kaaba to compensate Meccans who lost business when the Prophet eliminated all the Arabian pagan tribes that used to travel to Mecca for their pilgrimage. It is not hard to connect the dots if you have a critical-thinking brain. There is not a shred of evidence that Kaaba used to be an Abrahamic faith before Islam and why should there be, Abrahamic God is everywhere. You do not need to “travel” to reach Him or pray in a specific direction for Him to hear you- that is, if you really believe He is EVERYWHERE!