Iran’s president on Wednesday called on the Muslim world to “punish” Saudi Arabia following last year’s hajj crush and stampede that killed over 2,400 people – sharp criticism as multitudes poured into the kingdom for this year’s pilgrimage.
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The week began with a furious rebuke from Khamenei, published on his website, in which he accused the Saudi royals of “murder” over the deaths of almost 2,300 pilgrims, including hundreds of Iranians, in last year’s stampede.
‘. They (world Muslims) must think of a fundamental solution for the management of the Two Holy Mosques and the issue of Hajj, ‘ said the Leader while ctriticizing the Saudi rulers for reducing the Hajj “to a mere pilgrimage-tourism trip”.
Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti responded by saying Iranians were “not Muslim”.
Magi, or magus, refers to followers of Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic religion that was prevalent in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia before the rise of Islam in the seventh century. Riyadh-Tehran ties were severed for four years after more than 400 people were killed in Mecca during clashes between Iranian pilgrims staging an anti-U.S. protest and Saudi security forces in 1987.
Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival, blamed the disaster on organizers’ incompetence.
He also accused Saudi Arabia’s ruling Saud family – the custodians of Mecca and Medina – of politicizing the traditional Muslim pilgrimage or hajj, which will start at the end of this week.
In his response to the stampede, Khamenei accused Saudi officials of “murder”, saying that they left the injured with the dead rather than providing them with medical treatment.
Ayatollah Khamenei further stressed, “The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarize themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature”.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Iranian pilgrims held annual demonstrations against Israel and the United States at the hajj. Rafsanjani recounted how he and former Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz were able to begin negotiations and address issues after Iran-Saudi tensions had caused Iranians to miss hajj for three years in the late 1980s. In this backdrop, Saudi Arabia and Iran should have resolved their differences over performance of Hajj by Iranian pilgrims.
An Iranian honor guard carries caskets of Iranian pilgrims killed in a crush at the annual Hajj, during a repatriation ceremony at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, October 3, 2015.
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Saudi Arabia is expecting a more subdued Hajj and ensuing Eid celebration this year: the global slump in oil prices has led to government spending cuts and a drop in consumer spending, leaving citizens facing their most austere Eid in more than a decade.
