From Asia, Africa and points in between, almost 1.5 million Muslims launched the annual Haj pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites Saturday, undeterred by a stampede a year ago that cost around 2,300 lives.
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Saudi Arabia has stuck by its initial death toll of 769, but figures compiled from officials in more than 30 countries gave a tally nearly three times higher.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform Hajj at least once in a lifetime.
Muslim pilgrims leave after they finished their prayers at Namira Mosque in Arafat during the annual haj pilgrimage, outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia September 11, 2016.
About 1.5 million Muslims from across the world have started to observe the Day of Arafat, an occasion for repentance and supplication considered as the pinnacle of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
Government facilities were moved out of Mina to free up space, the Saudi Gazette reported, while roads in the Jamarat area were expanded, the Arab News said.
The Commission in a statement signed by the head of the medical team, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, disclosed that two of the pilgrims died in Madinah and one in Makkah.
A prominent Saudi cleric retaliated by saying Iran’s leaders are “not Muslim”.
Saudi state news agency SPA said that Crown Prince Mohammed Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, who is also the interior minister, supervised oversight as pilgrims used buses, trains and private cars to move from their encampments in Mena to Mount Arafat. The authorities in the Kingdom had appealed to pilgrims to perform the ritual at any part of the day, rather than only in the afternoon. Waves of men in seamless white garments and veiled women in long dresses joined voices in a crescendo chant of “Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik” (Here I am O Allah, answering your call). It comes one day before Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice).
Pointing to another case of politicization of the Hajj, he stated that the Saudi kingdom has banned Muslims of certain countries from the Hajj, due to their different political viewpoints.
Official figures issued late Saturday said the total number of pilgrims exceeds 1.8 million, with more than 1.3 million arrived from outside the kingdom.
“The Saudis organise everything for us”.
The arrested Indonesians could be sentenced to six years in prison and barred from Saudi Arabia for 10 years, according to the law. “We are truly at ease here”, Youssef al-Mehri, 24, from Oman said with a prayer rug slung over his shoulder.
The disaster deepened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as numerous pilgrims killed were Iranian. Masses of Iranian Shi’ites have instead converged on the holy Iraqi city of Karbala for an alternative pilgrimage.
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Iran previous year reported the largest number of stampede victims, at 464, and its pilgrims are excluded for the first time in decades after the regional rivals failed to agree on security and logistics.
