[banjo joe]

You caught that, too. The irony: In Christianity God is a tri-une being. In islam, god is a single being, and satan's represented by three pillars.

Hmmm. By design?

[piasa]

Back in 2001 : On Monday, the first day of the ceremony, 23 women and 12 men were crushed to death as a huge crowd rushed toward one of pillars. More than 100 other pilgrims were injured in the crush, according to Al-Madina newspaper.

From what I can tell, the three pillars are supposed to mark the spot where Satan tried to dissuad Ibrahim from the sacrifice that he was going to make of his kid. They later came to symbolize the devil.

Which is a further contortion if the event based on but not quite duplicating the earlier religion of Judaism. Interesting that in the muslim case the emphasis is on the devil's alleged attempt to prevent his from making the sacrifice.