CNN’s Zain Verjee: Obama Inauguration Like Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca

NewsBusters.org ^ | 1/20/2009 | Matthew Balan

[Pyro7480]

CNN correspondent Zain Verjee, in a report posted on CNN.com on January 17, likened the expected large crowds for the inauguration of Barack Obama to the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca: “The coming political pilgrimage to Washington is similar to another grand event in both size and preparation -- the Hajj, the most important religious pilgrimage in the Muslim world.”

Verjee has personal experience of the Hajj, as she belongs to the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam. She filed a web log for CNN of her experience on the pilgrimage in 2005. During her report, she emphasized how security is “[a]t the heart of the planning” for both the Hajj and on Inauguration Day. The CNN correspondent featured a clip of author Michael Wolfe, a convert to Islam, who claimed that security forces in Saudi Arabia “do have lessons to teach us in crowd control and in caring for large numbers of visitors in a modern city.”

[Pyro7480]

Good grief...

[tiredoflaundry]

omg

[xroadie]

How apt.

[Tulane]

Lol...can it get any worse than this? Wait...don’t answer that...

[DoughtyOne]

This is crap. They are trying to mainstream crap. I call it for what it is. CRAP!

[reagan_fanatic]

These drooling imbiciles have found their Jesus Christ, and he ain’t the one from Nazareth.

[popdonnelly]

Yeah it is, in more ways than one.

[KarlInOhio]

Obama Inauguration Like Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca

Hopefully in the sense that you only have to endure one in a lifetime.

[SolidWood]

Funny, since Verjee is also from Kenya (though ethnically Indian)...

I'm willing to forgive her though... ahem.

[housedeep]

well those pilgrims must have been disappointed!
what a boring, unmemorable speech.

[bossmechanic]

Monsterous chunky hurling time.
This escapade absolutely defies all logic.
I wonder how his step brother in a hut
or his aunt in the slum FEELS like now.

[albie]

The only shocker left is...Michelle Obama really is Aunt Ester!

[rightwingintelligentsia]

The CNN correspondent featured a clip of author Michael Wolfe, a convert to Islam, who claimed that security forces in Saudi Arabia “do have lessons to teach us in crowd control and in caring for large numbers of visitors in a modern city.”

Umm . . .don't hundreds of people routinely get trampled to death at these affairs?

[Mr. Mojo]

claimed that security forces in Saudi Arabia “do have lessons to teach us in crowd control and in caring for large numbers of visitors in a modern city.”

Not quite, Hain.

From link:

On July 2, 1990, a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel (Al-Ma'aisim tunnel) leading out from Mecca towards Mina and the Plains of Arafat led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims.

On May 23, 1994, a stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the stoning of the Devil ritual.

On April 9, 1998, at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death and 180 injured in an incident on Jamarat Bridge. [1]

On March 5, 2001, 35 pilgrims were trampled to death in a stampede during the stoning of the Devil ritual.

On February 11, 2003, the stoning of the Devil ritual claimed 14 pilgrims' lives. [2]

On February 1, 2004, 251 pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a stampede during the stoning ritual in Mina. [3]

2006 stampede: Hundreds dead in Hajj stampede On January 12, 2006, a stampede during the ritual ramy al-jamarāt on the last day of the Hajj in Mina killed at least 346 pilgrims and injured at least 289 more

[Mr. Mojo]

Hain.

Zain, that is.

[Zhang Fei]

I actually agree with the commentator. We have normal inaugurations - and then we have this one inauguration that’s like a pilgrimage to Mecca. Like Muslim pilgrims, Obama’s followers are on a quest to prostrate themselves before their idol.

[rovenstinez]

The news on Wall Street, the ticket tape, didn’t think it was MECCA.

[12Gauge687]

I was thinking Aunt Jemima but at least she can bake.

Maybe the reporter was refering to the teeming masses of humanity A friend also went on the Hajj and he said the police there in Mecca were pretty heavy-handed.

[NewJerseyJoe]

> Obama Inauguration Like Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca

I agree with that assessment -- throngs of the mindless revolving around a central false idea.

[Just another Joe]

“do have lessons to teach us in crowd control and in caring for large numbers of visitors in a modern city.”

Modern city? Muslims have modern cities?
I saw the pictures of the tent city outside of Mecca.
Didn't look like any "modern city" I've ever seen.

[Just another Joe]

A friend also went on the Hajj and he said the police there in Mecca were pretty heavy-handed.

I'm assuming this friend was Muslim. Otherwise he was taking his life in his own hands as it is a death sentence for any nonmuslim to enter Mecca.

[Notasoccermom]

The new Mecca?

[70th Division]

ZAIN you ignorant SLUT!

[texas_mrs]

Meanwhile, in a faraway hut

[ETL]

photo from the campaign trail

[DogBarkTree]

[a fool in paradise]

But don’t call him the Obamessiah or a new god. A false prophet. No, this idol worship is typical of all presidents.

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE

[F15Eagle]

Just another dimbulb MSM reporter. apparently

[a fool in paradise]

I saw the pictures of the tent city outside of Mecca. Didn't look like any "modern city" I've ever seen.

The Grateful Dead used to have a touring tent city that spent the bulk of their concerts just playing hacky sack in the parking lot.

[Dinah Lord]

W isn’t there yet but they are already broadcasting from the crowd here:

http://www.welcomehomebush.com/

lee greenwood’s being interviewed now.

[Rightly Biased]

bunch of obamabots on that scrolling message board there.

I told them to go to CNN and worship thier messiah

[New Perspective]

Barack Obama to the Hajj

Close

[FreeAtlanta]

Sheep

[Migraine]

Zain... and I think there are supposed to be 71 more vergees (depending on Zain’s present level of, shall we say, experience?).

[Sender]

On February 11, 2003, the stoning of the Devil ritual claimed 14 pilgrims' lives.

I haven't heard of any stampede deaths yet in the shoeing of the Bush ritual, but I remain hopeful.

[SuperLuminal]

Well, if you’ve ever been on or near planes, or airports with those moslem pilgrims on their way to Mecca, you would know that the unbearable stench is exactly the same!