(you can skip reading this post as I quote it in my replies so you would be reading it twice)
3-8
We worship GOD Almighty in the direction of His Grand Temple/House. We never worship the Temple/House itself. The Bible's Prophets in the Bible also had a "House of GOD Almighty" that they worshiped Him in. Also, the Jews' wailing wall today is a similar example to the Muslims' Kaaba, where the Jews pray to GOD Almighty facing the wall. The Bible also says:
"I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. (From the NIV Bible, Psalm 138:2)"
GOD Almighty's Holy Temple in Islam is the Kaaba in Mecca.
We've already seen the "House of GOD"Almighty in both the Bible and the Noble Quran above. We've seen how the Prostration to GOD Almighty in either His House or in the direction of His House (if you live far away) is the most proper way of Worship.
Again, to help u to understand the Islamic point better, I'd like to present the following from the Bible:
Numbers 24:3-5
3 and he uttered his oracle: "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
4 the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
5 "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
Deuteronomy 9:17-19
17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger.
19 I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.
The direction of the Kaaba not only unifies the Muslims, but it also maximizes the Glorification and Praising of GOD Almighty.
It maximizes the Glorification of GOD Almighty, because in the 5-daily Prayers, it is not only the individual who is Praising GOD, but also the millions of the Muslims world-wide (who are on the same time) are doing it almost simultaneously as if they were ONE CLOSE COMMUNITY.
and in the end Prophet Muhammad said " Demolishing the Kaaba completely is much more preferred to Allah Almighty than shedding the blood of a Believing Muslim."
Why should this be of any surprise, when God Almighty had brought down all of the Angels under the feet of the human-believers when He commanded them to bow down to Adam?
So no, we do not worship rocks and stones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bw7TpKVZ50