“It takes you away from the paraphernalia of this world and you have to face yourself and your ruh. It is a strenuous journey spiritually, emotionally and physically. Yes it is hard work, but it is a beautiful journey.” This is how one emotional pilgrim eloquently described her maiden hajj[…]
Saudi Arabia firmly rejected Iran’s criticism of its handling of the Haj pilgrimage Saturday after Tehran demanded an inquiry into the Mina stampede. “I believe the Iranians should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty,” Foreign[…]
Pilgrims streamed out of Mina after performing the ritual stoning of the devil for one last time on Saturday. There was no respite from the hot weather and the mercury hovered around 45 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. The pilgrims had poured into the Jamrat Complex since morning to perform the mandatory[…]
Saudi Arabia deployed large numbers of special forces on Saturday on the last day of Haj. Dozens of “special emergency force” troops were seen on one level of the Jamarat Bridge, a five-storey structure in Mina where pilgrims ritually stone the devil. Many more special troops patrolled the network of[…]
Hours after a stampede in Mina killed more than 700 pilgrims, fingers have been pointed at Saudi authorities who were blamed for the second major tragedy to hit this season’s hajj. “They don’t have a clue how to engage with these people,” Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of the Makkah-based Islamic Heritage[…]
The deadly stampede at the Haj in Mina on Thursday has become the second worst in a number of tragedies to strike the pilgrimage, surpassed only by a tunnel stampede 25 years ago. As of the latest count by the Directorate for Civil Defense, the death toll in Thursday’s stampede has[…]
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has ordered a review of the Kingdom’s Haj plans and entire procedures for the annual pilgrimage of Haj following the stampede in Mina. The King also directed the agencies concerned to carry out a prompt investigation into circumstances that led to the[…]
Tragedy struck Mina on day three of the five-day pilgrimage on Thursday, when 717 people were killed in a massive crush and 805 others injured. The accident comes close on the heels of a crane crash in Makkah’s Grand Mosque two weeks ago in which 111 people, mostly pilgrims, perished. Eyewitness accounts[…]
Saudi authorities say death toll from the Mina stampede has risen to 310, and 450 pilgrims are reported injured. The Civil Defense service released the toll and said rescue operations were under way after the stampede in Mina. The stampede occurred on Street 204 in Mina. The exact cause of the accident could[…]
Nearly two millions pilgrims from 164 nations gathered on Wednesday on the plains of Arafat, about 20 km from Makkah, for what is described as the most important and central element of the five-day annual Haj pilgrimage. The pilgrims began moving into Arafat from Mina on Tuesday night. They took trains[…]
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