Paris Hilton's store in Mecca causes controversy

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has outraged Muslims by opening a new shop in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The 31-year-old hard-partying socialite introduced her newly opened store on Twitter along with a picture, reported CNN online.

"Loving my beautiful new store that just opened at Mecca Mall in Saudi Arabia! This is the 5th store in Saudi Arabia, and store number 42 in total! So proud to keep growing my brand!," she posted.

Her announcement quickly prompted others to voice their displeasure and accused her of 'insulting Mecca'.

"It is unnecessary to have her shop here because we do not need it. If it was in our hands we would have closed all of her shops in Saudi," said Sheikh Adnan Baharith, a conservative cleric, who preaches in Mecca.

Whereas, another wrote, "How can someone who made such a video open a store in the holy city next to the Grand Mosque? It is not acceptable to have such a woman open her store here."

For others, the outrage was more about the ongoing commercialisation of the heritage of Mecca than Hilton herself.

"In the end, it's made a lot of people think about the bigger issue of the commercialisation of Mecca where historic sites have been demolished to make way for modern malls and international brands.

"There's no particular reason to be outraged about Paris Hilton when we already have Gucci and Christian Dior.

But for many it's further evidence of how the character of Mecca is being lost," a blogger posted.