As for Wikimania and Ramadan (thanks to Phoebe for bringing this up) actually, the presence of the mosque is not as troublesome as the fact of having to fast (no eating or driniking) from sun rise to sunset, and do additional spiritual rituals, while you need to attend sessions, analyze and concentrat for a whole day.

Hi all -- it's a good point but I don't want to take credit for something I didn't say; the Ramadan issue was raised by WereSpielChequers, who was having trouble sending to the list, so I forwarded his email for him.

Also, as the (non-voting) facilitator of last year's jury, along with Cary and James Forrester, I'm glad to answer questions about the process in general if I can; but it's really not very exotic -- the group reviews the bids closely, discusses the evidence, and then discusses/argues until they reach consensus on the bid that they think, out of the options, will lead to the most successful Wikimania. This is pretty much the process that's been used every year, with varying degrees of community controversy around the results. Despite controversy, to my knowledge there haven't been many proposals to date for alternative methodologies.

And not to prolong this thread any longer than necessary, but I think it's worth stating explicitly that the jury tries very hard to base their decisions on the requirements listed under the judging criteria and official requirements:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Judging_criteria

In the juries I have been involved in (2007-2011), jury members have taken these requirements very seriously, holding the organizing team and their proposed facilities to high standards, while not ignoring the travel and local laws criteria; however, politics, religion etc. have no part in the decision. As I have stated before, I think that choosing the Wikimania location is a very difficult decision to make, because there are indeed so many factors that go into it. Here is what I as facilitator asked the jury to do:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Jury

-- phoebe