Posted on 12/23/2015 7:53:46 PM PST by windcliff
'The situation was one of sheer hopelessness,' says Sajjad Shah from Pakistan. 'Those who could afford to stay and search for their dead loved ones did so. The others just had to go home.'
Almost three months after the deadliest Hajj crush in 25 years, the Saudi government’s official death toll still stands at 769, but most sources put the figure closer to 2,000. Shah, a hotel-owner from Mirpur, spent a month searching for his dead sister, but claims he met resistance from Saudi officials who covered up the full extent of the tragedy.
Just before 9am on 24 September, two groups preparing for one of the last major rites of the pilgrimage – the stoning of the devil – collided at the intersection of two roads. Shah says that his sister Syeda and nephew Irtaza, a student, were near the front of the crowd that poured across the Jamarat bridge.
'People were packed so tightly that they could not breathe and started tumbling over each other, and many became trapped underfoot,' Shah says.
Syeda’s body joined a mass of crudely built graves in Mina. She was denied her Islamic funeral rites: she was unwashed and buried without a white sheet.
'We could not put a permanent mark of any sort on the grave; there was no respect for the dead,' Shah says. He was told that the graves would probably be reused next year, so acute was the risk of another crush, and that chemicals would be poured in to dissolve the bodies.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Maniacs.
.
The religion does not take itself seriously. It only takes the conquest seriously.
Death and mayhem is part of that religion..
Its the Jews fault, no doubt
In a weird way it kind of reminds me of people getting stomped on while trying to get into a store back during the Cabbage Patch Doll craze.
obozo is deeply saddened.
It is the Will of Allah.
“The closest thing to hell on earth.”
Their version of “Nearer my God (Ssssatan) to thee.”
This happens every single year! Certainly they should be able to agree on a better, more leveled approach to the pilgrimage. My thought is most participants expect this to be a life and death struggle, and they’d feel cheated of the “full experience” were safer methods enforced. The tail is fully wagging the dog.
This a comment from The Guardian site:
I’m curious. Which other regime has stewardship of the most important site of a religion, the visit to which is a religious requirement, and routinely lets thousands upon thousands of visitors march through what is a essentially a meat grinder, then refuses to take responsibility? Especially after acquiring that site via conquest because of its religious importance?
Mind you, I’m not saying other oppressive regimes don’t take away your photos and refuse to acknowledge disasters. But the point is North Korea etc. don’t contain a site believers *must* visit, as far as I know. You can just decide to not go.
Similarly, it’s not a yearly occurrence for hundreds to die at, say, the Vatican.
Now, I’m an atheist and I think the entire concept of required pilgrimage is insane, but if I ruled a country which attracted the deluded by the thousands, I’d make sure they are as safe as possible so they keep paying me, bring their families and ideally go more than once in a lifetime. Instead, SA is relying solely on the fact that these people *cannot* decide to just not go. It’s not an option at all. That is the nature of their religious belief, if held sincerely. It’s called submission, and if you fail at it by not attempting the pilgrimage although you are physically and financially able, you have failed at submitting to your god.
The Saudi business model is “there are millions of people who must come here, so let’s milk that cash cow with as little investment as possible.”
So, which country is holding the holiest site of a major religion hostage and routinely glosses over the deaths of pilgrims who are required to go there? I know of no major religion other than Islam that *requires* such a pilgrimage in the first place.
The Muslim mindset is like that of Pre-WWII Germany...”Oh, poor us! Everyone is against us! Our complete lack of an economic culture is just because Rich Countries Hate Us...and the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!” They must explain to themselves WHY they have nothing and produce nothing except oil that was in the ground before they got there. And at the core of it, oh! Is ALLAH who is SO POWERFUL! Yah, well he lets you die enmass in crowds of stupid people practicing ritual, he lets you die in earthquakes, in tsunamis, in petty little squabbles between different factions arguing over what Mohammed ate for breakfast. Yah, to an outsider, that Baal-Allah guy doesn’t seem to give a crap about you.
The 'pilgrims' should take it as a sign from God.... they are on the wrong road. Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Is there any way they could do this every day, perhaps both in the morning and afternoon? I might also suggest it would be even more beautiful to do after dusk.
Further proof that the Saudis are evil.
Your false prophet was a scm-bag and all your preachers lied to yon so wake up or be damned
OK this guy is a UK fag full of self importance but he gets the Hajj = meat grinder part so I give him eleven out of ten.
The US government goes out of its way to bury Islamic criminals, Osama and the San Bernardino killers, in accordance with Islamic religious ritual , while in Mecca those killed while undertaking the most sacred rite of their religion are left unshrouded, buried in unmarked graves, and decomposition is hastened by chemicals under the auspices of the Saudi government, which claims Islamic authority. If the Saudi’s aren’t following the proper rituals, why are we? Shouldn’t they, the purported “true believers”, practice that which they preach?
Mecca = “Hell”.
Sounds like hell on earth even without the stampedes.
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