Last year’s hajj stampede which killed roughly 2,300 people, many of them Iranians, magnified those frictions.
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“I’m here closer to God”.
In one of the deadliest disasters to befall the annual Muslim rite in decades, the crush killed almost 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, though counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.
They spent the most important day of the haj in prayer and reading from the Quran.
Muslim pilgrims arrive at Mount Arafat where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have given his final sermon. Able-bodied Muslims must do it at least once in their lives, and it’s one of five central pillars of the religion. “It’s handsome to see the Muslims of the world pray together here”.
For the first time in years, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh did not give his traditional Arafat sermon.
“All Muslims on Earth wish they could have been here today”.
There they collected pebbles in the dark before retreating for the night into Mina, the narrow city of air-conditioned white tents where last year’s crush occurred as pilgrims moved to throw their pebbles in a ceremonial stoning of the devil.
After sunset, the throng was on the move aboard buses heading for nearby Muzdalifah, in preparation for the first hajj stoning ritual since a deadly stampede during last year’s pilgrimage.
More than 1.8 million gathered from sunrise at the hill about 15 kilometres from Mecca where Prophet Mohammed gave his last sermon about 14 centuries ago after leading his followers on the pilgrimage.
The Saudi government has “introduced new safety measures for this year’s hajj, including electronic wristbands for pilgrims and more surveillance cameras and other technology for improved crowd control”, as The Wall Street Journal reports. “It’s marvelous”, Egyptian pilgrim Louza told the BBC.
On Sunday, helicopters monitored the crowd flow from the skies, while on the ground, police directed pedestrian movement.
Saudi Arabia has launched a Persian-language satellite television channel covering the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage amid an escalating spat with its regional rival Iran.
Their boss, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, minister of interior and chairman of the hajj committee, was in Mina to help supervise “the services being provided to the pilgrims”, the official Saudi Press Agency said.
Despite the safety and security measures which Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia says it has taken, Shiite Iran has angrily questioned the kingdom’s custodianship of Islam’s holiest places.
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Masses of Iranian faithful held an alternative pilgrimage on Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of the Iraqi capital.
