Turkish reporter proposes at Mecca’s Kaabah

ISTANBUL

A Turkish reporter for the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Channel (TRT) has proposed to a young woman at Mecca’s Kaabah, the holiest mosque in Islam, in Saudi Arabia.

Yusuf Akyön, the son of Turkish press attaché to Jeddah Bahattin Akyön, recorded a video while proposing to a girl at the holy site during an Umrah visit. 

The video showed Akyön getting down on one knee upon the woman’s request who had said otherwise she would refuse the proposal.

“We have our holy Kaabah and holy mothers here. I am a little bit nervous in their presence, but I think it is a good deed,” he said in the video.

Meanwhile, the couple’s relatives at the scene applauded his proposal.

However, Akyön’s proposal at the mosque immediately drew reaction on social media, prompting him to subsequently deactivate his social media accounts.

Some users claimed the act was impious, while others described it as “an insult to the sacred place.”