Changing of the Qiblah

The author of this page has a good point. Muhammad changed the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to the Kaaba at a time when THE IDOLS WERE STILL IN THERE. As the quote below states, the reason was very obvious. He had failed to impress the Jews by praying toward Jerusalem and fasting on the Day of Atonement (Ashura) so he turned to trying to impress the pagan Arabs instead, since those were the only people he had any real chance of convincing to join his made up religion. But of course I'm sure Muslims have a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Allah would tell Muslims to pray toward the idol shop with idols still in it.
This also explains why Muhammad added all that other pagan Arab stuff to Islam. Knowing that he had no chance of winning over the Jews and Christians to his much inferior religion, he went all out with winning over the pagans instead. That worked. Only problem is that by doing that he doomed Islam to being called a pagan religion and a false Abrahamic religion, since obviously the God of the Jews would not incorporate pagan practices into his religion after all that "terrible doom and hellfire awaiting them" comments. Muhammad's ploys were so transparent only idiots would think Islam is a real monotheistic anti-pagan religion. God would not incorporate even ONE pagan practice, much less all of them.
This also explains why Muhammad added all that other pagan Arab stuff to Islam. Knowing that he had no chance of winning over the Jews and Christians to his much inferior religion, he went all out with winning over the pagans instead. That worked. Only problem is that by doing that he doomed Islam to being called a pagan religion and a false Abrahamic religion, since obviously the God of the Jews would not incorporate pagan practices into his religion after all that "terrible doom and hellfire awaiting them" comments. Muhammad's ploys were so transparent only idiots would think Islam is a real monotheistic anti-pagan religion. God would not incorporate even ONE pagan practice, much less all of them.
All sources, Quran, Sira and Tafsir, speak of only one change of qiblah, from the former Qiblah (Jerusalem) to the new Qiblah (Mecca). Apparently, Muhammad and his followers prayed towards Jerusalem (which is the same as the direction of Syria) from the very beginning of Muhammad’s prophetic career, i.e. for over thirteen years (all the time in Mecca, plus 18 months in Medina).
What is amazing about this is that Muhammad replaced these very monotheistic practices for those originating from the paganism of the Meccan Arabs!
Note that the change of the Muslim direction of prayer — away from Jerusalem and towards the Kabah in Mecca — happened at a time when it was full of pagan idols and the worship of false gods was the daily practice at this shrine, and would continue to be this way for a good number of years until Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca.
Muhammad sought to win the Jews to Islam, and adopting their direction of prayer was one of the tools employed in this endeavor. After it became clear that the Jews would never follow him, he turned against them, and abandoned the fasting at Ashura and the Qiblah that he had chosen to impress them and win them over. After Muhammad had lost hope that the Jewish and Christian communities would join his movement, the only groups he could still hope to unite in his religion were the various pagan tribes of Arabia.
Muhammad had followed various religious observances of the Jews to gain their favor. Apparently for similar opportunistic reasons he now changed the Muslim Qiblah towards the Kabah, the central shrine of the Arab pagan religion, despite the fact that it was full of idols. It is hardly unfounded speculation when one gets the suspicion that he gave their holy place an important position in his religion in order to make it more attractive for the Arabs to join Islam.
http://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/qiblah.htm