Free Republic

We in the West continue to pretend that the violence committed by Muslims are all isolated events, whether it was Iran's holding hostages for over 400 days; the attack on the USS Cole; 9/11; the massacre at Charlie Hebdo; the slaugther at the French deli; the burnings and beheadings in the Middle East; Benghazi; the blowing up of the Russian jet; the recent blood-letting in Paris that left 129 dead.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The crush and stampede that struck the hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,177 pilgrims, a new Associated Press tally showed Monday, after officials in the kingdom met to discuss the tragedy.

“Clock boy” Ahmed Mohamed made it to Mecca Friday for umrah, the Arabic word for pilgrimage, the portion of his Middle Eastern tour sponsored by the Saudi government. The trip also included the 14-year-old’s parents and other relatives, including one uncle who pushed the Islamophobia narrative. The uncle, identified by Arab News as Moussa Al-Hassan, asserted: “The ordinary American citizen lives in a state of fear of Arabs because of the American media’s portrayal of him as an extremist terrorist.”

How wonderful and generous and ecumenical and multicultural this is. Watch for mosques everywhere to remove their mihrabs and install crosses so that Christians will feel comfortable praying there. This is what a society and culture in the midst of suicide looks like. Bishop Eva Brunne has proposed to remove the Christian symbols of the Seamen’s Church in Freeport to make it more inviting for visiting sailors from other religions. The bishop wants to temporarily make the Seamen’s Church available to all, for example by marking the direction of Mecca and removing Christian symbols, as is already done in common...

Stunning pictures are coming out of Mecca, which, if genuine, reveal a stunning level of brutal disregard for human life. Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit picked up the story, as revealed by tweets from Tarek Fatah:   Pictures emerge of #Saudi officials bulldozing bodies of dead #Hajj pilgrims like garbage & dumping them into a pile. pic.twitter.com/6uKtbuF9Rm— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) September 26, 2015

More than 700 people were crushed to death Thursday in a stampede just outside Mecca during the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia that has been attended by millions of faithful over the centuries. The incident in Mina, Saudi Arabia, was the latest in a series of tragedies that have marred the ritual journey to Islam’s holiest city, a journey that occasionally has turned deadly—typically because of the vast numbers of people who crowd into Mecca and nearby cities. This year, believers were trampled to death during the last major ritual that pilgrims perform before entering Mecca, a...

  Making Haj may be one of the deadliest things for a Muslim to do. The latest "stoning the devil" accident, in which Muslim pilgrims to Mecca reenact an ancient pagan ritual involving Mercury, has led to a huge death toll that currently stands at 717 dead and 863 wounded. "Stoning the devil" has been a killer for Muslims before. 23 May 1994: About 270 people die in a stampede at the "Stoning of the Devil" ritual. 9 April 1998: On the third and last day of the Haj pilgrimage, a stampede at Jamarat Bridge kills at least 118...

At least 717 pilgrims were killed on Thursday in a stampede outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities said, the worst disaster to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage in 25 years. At least 805 others were injured in the crush at Mina, a few miles east of Mecca, caused by two large groups of pilgrims arriving together at a crossroads on their way to performing the "stoning the devil" ritual at Jamarat, Saudi civil defence said. Thursday's disaster was the worst to befall the pilgrimage since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel...

The death toll in a stampede outside Mecca has risen to 717, with at least 800 injured, the deadliest disaster on the annual hajj pilgrimage in over a quarter of a century. The crush happened in the Mina valley, a few miles outside Mecca, where a sprawling camp of 160,000 tents fills with millions of visitors for a few days each year. Tragedy hit when two large groups of pilgrims who were preparing for one of the last major rites of their trip met on an intersection of two roads, Saudi authorities said.

Dina SpectorSeptember 25, 2015More than 453 people were crushed to death and another 610 injured in a stampede on Thursday during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Guardian reports, citing Saudi Arabian authorities. The stampede happened at a pilgrimage camp in Mina, located outside the holy city of Mecca. The incident happened on Street 204 — one of the two main roads that lead through the Mina camp to Jamarat — when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together, Reuters said. Jamarat is where pilgrims stone the devil by throwing pebbles at three large pillars. Thursday is Eid al-Adha, or...

(CNN) —A stampede during one of the last rituals of the Hajj season -- the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca -- has killed more than 300 people and injured 450 others in Saudi Arabia. The stampede occurred Thursday during the ritual known as "stoning the devil" in the tent city of Mina, about 2 miles from Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Hundreds have been killed in past years during the same ceremony. "We have a stampede accident in Mina, and civil defense is dealing with it," said Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, an Interior Ministry spokesman. The ministry said the latest death...

Update 8:45 a.m. Tuesday: The district confirmed that Ahmed’s father met with the superintendent yesterday and requested to pull Ahmed out of the district. But technically, the Mohamed children are still on the rolls this morning, until some formalities are completed.

The original story was about a controversial package in a school setting, but it was quickly claimed to be a homemade clock. If so, the clock itself (not the presentation) might be cool as the White House said. If not, the world may be propping up a plagiarist who flaunted the piece of crap in an intentionally controversial way (suppositions). This video challenges that the clock was homemade by showing a nearly identical package being prepared in about twenty seconds (screws and simple fasteners were excluded for brevity here). [please see brief 20 second video at link]

MECCA: About 1,000 Asian pilgrims were evacuated early on Thursday from their hotel in the Saudi city of Mecca, hit by a fire that injured two people, the civil defence agency said. Firefighters "rescued two pilgrims who were hurt" by the fire in an eighth-floor room of the unnamed hotel, the agency said. ... The agency also did not give the nationality of the pilgrims, nor say what caused the blaze.

The influential Saudi Binladin Group has been suspended by Saudi Arabia after one of its cranes at the Grand Mosque in Mecca collapsed last Friday, killing 107 and wounding 238 people at the holiest site in Islam which houses the Kaaba cube Muslims pray towards. Ironically the lethal crane collapse took place on September 11 amid high winds and a sandstorm; Binladin Group was founded in 1931 by the father of Osama bin Laden, the infamous late terror leader of Al Qaeda who conducted the 9/11 attacks against the US exactly 14 years earlier. Osama's brother Bakr runs the Binladin...

The final day of the Shemitah year, Elul 29 on the Hebrew calendar, began at sundown Saturday and Rosh Hashanah, also called the Feast of Trumpets, starts Sunday at sundown. Among those who have been studying and teaching on the seven-year Shemitah cycle, the expectations have varied wildly. The Hebrew word “Shemitah” can be interpreted as “release” or “collapse,” which has led to predictions of stock market collapses and economic doom, wars, natural disasters and the period of time Jesus referred to as the “beginning of sorrows.” Jonathan Cahn, who lifted the Shemitah out of Old Testament obscurity (it is...

On the anniversary of the horrific 9/11 terror attacks against the World Trade Center and other targets, some are calling a deadly accident at the Grand Mosque in Mecca nothing less than divine payback. A crane crashed into the building on Friday, leaving 65 dead and injuring another 154, according to initial estimates. The crane reportedly came down due to “strong winds” in the area. Heavy rains and even a lightning strike were also reported. The mosque was even more crowded than usual because of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca by millions of Muslims this time of year, known as...

The hajj WILL go ahead: Religious leaders confirm Islam's mass pilgrimage to Mecca goes ahead this month despite the crane disaster killing 107 there yesterday Saudi official announced today that the hajj will go ahead in Mecca despite the horror of yesterday's crane collapse An investigation has been launched in the disaster as critics claim authorities were negligent in allowing the cranes Authorities issued extreme weather warnings and earlier photos capture mosque being struck by lightning ceiling Crane is part of massive project to increase the area of the mosque to accommodate 2.2million people at once A Saudi official has...

At least 87 people have been killed after a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in Saudi Arabia, according to local authorities.

At least 65 people were killed and scores were wounded Friday when a crane collapsed in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said. The accident happened as pilgrims from around the world converged on the city, Islam's holiest site, for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which takes place this month. (snip) Another video, on a Twitter posting, captured the apparent moment of the crane's collapse during a heavy rainstorm, with a loud boom, screams and confusion.