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Hajj marred by tragedy
By Taieb Mahjoub King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has ordered the holy places of Mecca and Medina to be modernized, after some 250 Muslims â half of them Asians â died during a ritual that regularly results in deadly stampedes at the Hajj pilgrimage. âWhy stop a good thing-itâs tradition ya knowâ The 20-year project, announced by royal decree, establishes a committee chaired by minister of municipal and rural affairs, Mutaab Bin Abdel Aziz, and including Mecca regional governor Abdel Majid Bin Abdel Aziz, Medina regional governor Muqran Bin Abdel Aziz, and Hajj minister Iyad Bin Amin Madani. âthis should be interesting-a 20 years to do what?â The committee will âgradually put forward proposalsâ on the basis of expert opinion from abroad as well as within the kingdom. ânote the word graduallyâ The dead and injured were trampled or suffocated last Sunday, when vast numbers of pilgrims â almost 2 million â surged forward to lob stones at pillars representing the devil. âThe devil made me do itâ The ritual in the valley of Mina, just outside Mecca, continued for a second day on Monday. âperhaps they could merge this activity somehow with the Bull run in Spainâ The annual Hajj is an immense logistical challenge for the Saudi authorities, who last month announced an âintegrated crowd control strategyâ to prevent new tragedies during the annual event. âBut it is good if Allah wishes it right?â Pilgrims were to be released, in limited numbers, onto a two-tier bridge to take part in the ritual stoning of the devil â represented by three pillars below the bridge â with special forces deployed to disperse people in case of a stampede. âum two tier bridge-anyone see something disastrous here? â The faithful were also supposed to leave the area quickly after completing the ritual, while arrangements had been made to rescue pilgrims who fainted or got trapped in the crowds, with the movement of pilgrims monitored via closed-circuit television. âOK throw your rocks and get movingâ But â as in so many previous years â strategies to prevent a tragedy at the pillars apparently failed, leading to the worst accident since 1998, when 118 pilgrims were killed and more than 180 hurt. The worst toll of the pilgrimage was in July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or asphyxiated to death in a tunnel in Mina. Most of the pilgrims who died in this yearâs accident were Asian. âAllah doesnât like Asians?â âWe believe that most of the dead are from among illegal pilgrims,â said Hajj minister Madani, referring to those who arrived earlier in the year to perform the Umrah (minor pilgrimage) and stayed illegally, as well as local residents who had not registered for the Hajj. âIllegal immigrants in the Kingdom? Shockingâ He said 2,000 national guard members were moved to the area following the stampede to reinforce 10,000 police already on site. âmaybe if we used paintball gunsâ Despite the stampede, which lasted nearly half an hour, the ritual resumed later on Sunday, continuing for another two and a half hours. âOk just walk around those bodies-keep it movingâ To cries of âAllahu akbarâ (God is great), pilgrims hurl seven small stones from behind a fence or from the overhead bridge every day for three days at each of the three 18-meter (58-foot) high concrete pillars that symbolize Satan. âI guess they have workers who much like our golf driving range attendants go in and pick up the rocks for the next roundâ The pillars stand only 155 meters apart and are generally mobbed as pilgrims try to get as close as possible. âWouldnât it be safer just to piss on the devilsâ rock?â
âanother (t)urban legendâ Pilgrims who were at the rite on Sunday gave varying accounts of what took place but all said they would not be deterred. ânah Abdul had it coming anywaysâ âI was there and saw 30 to 40 bodies on the ground. But I donât know if they were dead or unconscious,â said one young Saudi, who declined to give his name. âya I just got my rocks out and threw them anyways.â âWhat happened this morning did not stop the accomplishing of the Hajj rituals. The pilgrims continued to rush in,â said Waleed Faydullah, a 32-year-old Egyptian. âWhittled down a few of the players thoughâ The first two days of the pilgrimage had passed without incident under tight security â although seven members of what the authorities described as a âterror groupâ were arrested on suspicion of planning an attack. âgeez wonder if they would have blown up something-coolâ Since King Fahd Bin Abdel Aziz acceded to the throne in 1982 and took the title of Guardian of the Two Holy Sites, the government has spent more than 100 billion Saudi riyals (about $27 billion) on enlarging the shrines at Mecca and Medina, which attract millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia each year. âmoney well spent â is that for quarrying or what?â The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, along with faith, prayer, charity and the annual Ramadan fast, reached its peak last Saturday on the nearby plain of Arafat, where pilgrims prayed for forgiveness. They then spent the night in the town of Muzdalifa, where they collected their stones, before heading to Mina. âParty downâ Posted by: dataman1 2004-02-09 |
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