Islam Critiqued needs Mecca for himself; Muslims doing hajj in Petra?

In answer to the video "Abraham and the Kaaba: From Borrowed Stories to Sacred Scripture"

The Quran speaks of specific communities and incidents in relation to Mecca and the Kaaba with no evidence as happening anywhere but in Mecca at the time of revelation.

It in addition names places surrounding Mecca and the Kaaba, well known then and still identified today, like Arafat, Mash'ari haram, Juranah about 6hours walk from Mecca, where was located the farthest mosque in relation to the Kaaba, where the prophet used to stop and pray in the mosque that was by the spring and encouraged the Muslims to begin their minor pilgrimage (umrah) from that place until they reached Mecca. There were of course wells and springs where the Meccans went for their water supply. Some of these wells were in the city, dug long into the pre-islamic times, others on the city's outskirts, and others further still. One of these relatively distant water sources for instance is the one in the valley of Khumm, between Mecca and Medina, given the same name by Kilab ibn Murrah who dug it long before the prophet according to the Islamic tradition. Water is still available at the place and is called Ghadir Khumm. It was a frequent passing point for the Muslims and the prophet, who according to the Shia tradition, named Ali as his successor at the spot. Water supply was certainly not plentiful and easily available, so much so that those in charge of the siqaya/providing water to pilgrims were highly regarded. Although scarce, rain fell nevertheless on Mecca, even sometimes to the point that the precincts of the Kaaba would be flooded, it happens still nowadays. This in fact is a known factor to have caused degradation to the edifice of the Kaaba throughout time. The Quraysh would gather this water in reservoirs to make sure their water supply wouldnt run dry for themselves and the yearly pilgrims.
The cave of Hira is another of those places found in the early historical records, described in a manner corresponding to a specific location in Mecca. It is about a 2hours walk on the nour mountain, outside of which one can oversee Mecca, as well as Safa and Marwa.

The word "jabal" describing Safa and Marwa in Arabic applies to any rocky elevation, small or big. The Quran for instance speaks of Ibrahim scattering chopped off pieces of a bird on surrounding jabal 2:260. Abraham wasnt going around climbing up mountains and leaving a piece of bird on each. It is also clear from the description of Hagar's ordeal, running between safa and marwa then standing successively on top of one jabal, then the other. She obviously wasnt going along climbing mountains in the desert heat.
No place in the world was refered to as Mecca, other than present day Mecca. That is not to mention the battles of Badr and Uhud, among many other specific locations where battles occured, where native tribes were met, their names and dialogues recorded, as well as the plethora of traditional records, authentic or else, isolated or known, all speaking of places and people that cannot by the furthest strech of the imagination be placed anywhere else than where they are currently located.

There isnt the slightest hint at a conspiracy the scale of which would have been required to put into place such a massive rewrite of history. Neither is there evidence for a large conspiracy to rename Mecca and all these places, nor is there archaeological support for these places being anywhere but in Mecca.

The Quran for example denounces the Arabs' idol worship and practices like animal sacrifice repeatedly, occuring in places it names in and around Mecca 2:256-7,5:3,90,16:36,22:30. All these practices were banned long before Islam by the Byzantines in the northern area of Arabia Petrae, meaning they couldnt have occured there at the time of the revelation of these condemning verses.

This type of claim runs along the same lines as others who argue that the original qibla faced Petra to the north of Arabia, instead of the Kaaba in Mecca. Early Muslims, and those of Mecca in particular had a fair idea about the orientation of several astronomical phenomenon (sunrise or sunset during equinoxes, solstices, Pole star, Canopus etc) in relation to the Kaaba and used them to orient their mosques towards their respective qibla. They knew that when they stood in front of the edifice, they were facing a particular astronomical direction and reproduced the same alignments in their new location as if they stood directly in front of a particular Kaaba segment. Iraqi mosques aligned towards the winter sunset, ie facing the northeast wall of Kaaba. In Fustat, Egypt it faced the winter sunrise, ie facing the northwest wall of Kaaba. None of those mosques faced Jerusalem or northern Arabia.
 

Why would the entire Muslims community, a cluster of highly unruly and disunited tribes and clans, linked together only by their religion, living since times immemorial in this unnamed mysterious northern place, suddenly accept to be uprooted from its sacred location, where its prided history, cultural, economic attachments are all found, and accept relocating in a barren and isolated area. How could such a move pass unnoticed in the oral tradition. Even if every Muslim alive at the time of the alleged move vowed to keep it secret, how likely is it that the next generation of Muslims would not have leaked multiple versions of the story into the hadith? 

The years following the prophet's death were times of great political and sectarian turmoil. Each group, spread geographically gave religious and legal authority to their figures, rejecting the legitimacy, beliefs, and practices of others. From the partisans of Ali in Kufa, to the Umayyads in Damascus, to the proto-sunnis that claimed to follow the schools of Mecca, Medina and Iraq or the Omani Kharijites. This led to the development of independent and various traditions. And yet the single thing they all agreed upon was the Quran and the Meccan qibla, the prophet's birth in Mecca, his death in Medina and the vast majority of the essentials of the religion. This unified tradition can only be rooted at a time where the community was united under their prophet and uncontested leader. Recent archaeology has revealed inscriptions dated to the first and 2nd centuries after hijra around Medina speaking of a Kaaba and masjid-al haram (al maghtawi). 

There are even earlier open mosques in the Negev area, none of them are oriented towards northern Arabia or Jerusalem and all of them are aligned to Canopus thus facing the northwest wall. Some more recent polemicists, the likes of Gibson, stubbornly insisting on such flimsy claims have deceptively tried using satellite images of mosques to make them appear as if they face the Petra region. The flaw in that method is that, as anyone familiar with mosques knows, it is impossible to ascertain eachone's mihrab (a niche in the interior of the wall of a mosque denoting the direction of prayer for worshippers in the mosque) except if one sees it from inside the building. One could just as easily align them with Hawaii rather than Petra. Even today, and within one and the same country, certain mosques face different cardinal points depending on whether they base their direction to Mecca on a flat map, or on the shortest distance around the globe. Among other flimsier claims are those of Crone and Cook, misquoting Jacob of Edessa so as to make it appear as if the Muslims prayed towards Jerusalem in the early 8th century. The actual quote refutes their distortions and confirms Muslim historical accounts;

"The Jews who live in Egypt, as likewise Mahgraye (the Syriacized form of muhajirun, in reference to the invading Muslim Arab immigrants) there, as I saw with my own eyes and will now set out for you, prayed to the east, and still do, both people - the Jews towards Jerusalem, and the Mahgraye towards the Kʿabah (K‘bt'). And those Jews who are in the south of Jerusalem pray to the north; and those in Babylonia and nhrt' and bwst' pray to the west. And also the Mahgraye who are there pray to the west, towards the Ka‘ba; and those who are to the south of the Ka‘ba pray to the north, towards the place. So from all this it is clear that it is not to the south that the Jews and Mahgraye here in the regions of Syria pray, but towards Jerusalem or Kʿabah, the patriarchial places of their races".

Robert Hoyland further observes that

"Jacob had studied in Alexandria as a youth and so would have been in a position to observe the Muslims there at first hand, which makes his testimony particularly valuable. His information about Syria is also likely to be accurate, for there were Muslims resident in Edessa while he was bishop of that town. What he makes abundantly clear is that the intention of the Muslims was to direct themselves towards a specific site, which they called the Ka'ba. This is presumably to be identified with the "House of God," "the locality in the south where their sanctuary was," which is mentioned by Jacob's contemporary, John bar Penkaye, a resident of north Mesopotamia".

The list of empty claims, sensational conspiracies and revisionism of established history goes on and on. And yet, the language of the Quran itself, its consonantal text is in the old Hijazi. That Arabic dialect is attested in the Hijaz region from about the 1st to the 7th centuryCE. 

Other humorists, have proposed similar massive conspiracies, citing Quran verses describing locations and landscapes apparently nowhere near Mecca's surroundings. It is well known and established that Mecca was a seasonal city where people flocked in during the pilgrimage period only. 28:57 refers to this fact, that it is a safe sanctuary by God's grace, where people flock in and bring in it thamaraat/produce of all kinds. All year long outside this pilgrimage season where people brought in their goods, the caravans of the Arabs and the Quraysh had to travel outside the Peninsula to the north, to Syria and Jordan to do their trade. They passed through all types of landscapes along the way especially in the more lush areas of the north

23:17-20"..then with that rain We caused vineyards and palmgroves to spring up in which you have plentiful of fruit that you eat. As well as the tree that springs from mt Sinai producing oil and relish for the eaters".

They were also familiar with agriculture and rich farming lands, such as those of Ta'if, famous for its grapes, pomegranates, figs etc, and located less than a 100km from them. It is to be noted that since the earliest revelations, the Quran was a message, not only addressed to the Meccans but to

42:7"the mother city and those around it".

Umm al qura/mother city refers to Mecca being a center point of pilgrimage for the cities around it. There was no mother city in anyway shape or form in northern Arabia at the time, and Petra had gone into decline for long before Islam. These Meccan voyagers also passed through several locations where nations were known, prior to Islam, for having been destroyed. One of those locations was that of the people of Lut. The city of Lut is traditionally believed to be located somewhere along the Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordan, is said to be a frequent passing point of those people addressed by the Quran

37:133-8"And Lut was also of the messengers...you pass by their ruins by day and by night".

On their northern trips, the Meccans passed this location "by night and by day". Notice the clear Quranic words, not "daily and nightly". The verse 11:89 as a side note is quoting the prophet Shuayb, the Midianite 11:94,29:36-7 telling his people about the land of Lut not being far away. Midian is to the north of the Hijaz.