Muslim pilgrims collect on high of the rocky hill often known as the Mountain of Mercy, within the Arafat plain, through the annual Hajj pilgrimage, close to the holy metropolis of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, June 15. | Photograph credit score: AP
The story up to now: The Hajj, a gathering of almost two million Muslim pilgrims, which falls within the final month of the Islamic calendar, has been within the information once more. Greater than 1,300 casualties had been reported because of the excessive warmth in Saudi Arabia presently of the yr. Many of the casualties had been reported at Arafat, the place pilgrims pause on their technique to Muzdalfa. Arafat is the place the place Prophet Muhammad delivered his farewell sermon to 144,000 pilgrims in 632 A.D. This vigil at Arafat is a vital a part of the pilgrimage with out which the Hajj is taken into account invalid. Many casualties occurred whereas pilgrims had been shifting from Arafat to Mina within the scorching warmth.
What’s Hajj?
The Hajj is without doubt one of the 5 pillars of Islam. This pilgrimage to Mecca is a vital a part of the religion and any financially and bodily able-bodied particular person should undertake the journey as soon as of their lifetime. Prophet Muhammad is alleged to have undertaken this pilgrimage shortly earlier than he breathed his final in 632 AD. The Hajj journey follows the lunar calendar. Consequently, it falls about 11 days earlier every year. This yr’s pilgrimage started on the finish of the second week of June. For the subsequent two years, the pilgrimage will likely be carried out in harsh climate circumstances with temperatures above 50 levels Celsius.
What occurred this yr?
Saudi authorities put aside a hard and fast quota for all main nations, primarily based on Muslim inhabitants, for issuing Hajj visas. This helps plan the keep and motion of pilgrims within the desert state. Authorities issued Hajj visas to only over 180,000 folks, however the Hajj was undertaken by greater than two million pilgrims. Which means that round 200,000 folks entered with out authorization.
Saudi authorities insisted that almost all pilgrims with legitimate Hajj visas had been in a position to full the Hajj rituals with the very best services and there have been few deaths past pure causes of previous age or sickness. Based on Saudi Well being Minister Fahad bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel, round 83% of the 1,301 fatalities had been unauthorized pilgrims who undertook the journey with out the required precautions on this time of utmost summer season temperatures.
Who’re the “unauthorized” pilgrims?
Unauthorized and undocumented pilgrims usually arrive from neighboring nations resembling Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq on a go to visa shortly earlier than the Hajj season begins. Some are additionally handbook laborers from India and Pakistan who, though they’ve a legitimate work visa, should not licensed to carry out the pilgrimage with out correct permission and documentation. Undocumented guests are sometimes too financially weak to bear the price of the pilgrimage through the official route, which prices a minimum of $3,000. Due to this fact, they usually flip to brokers who supply them the journey for half the worth. The brokers pocket the cash upfront and infrequently disappear after these women and men attain Saudi Arabia, leaving them excessive and dry. Holders of a go to visa should not allowed to enter Mecca through the Hajj. Due to this fact, these guests/pilgrims usually undertake arduous routes by the desert to outwit the officers.
Learn additionally: Local weather change has made the Haj pilgrimage extra dangerous
Whereas those that go for the permitted route obtain each potential facility from the host nation, together with transport in air-conditioned automobiles and a relentless provide of water and medical providers, those that enter illegally discover themselves beneath a scorching solar with temperatures usually exceeding 50 levels Celsius. Many stroll alone from Arafat to Mina, a distance of about 15 kilometers. In contrast to others, they haven’t any sanitary services to show to. Furthermore, many of the pilgrims on this class are aged, and have saved each penny for years for this journey.
The Hajj has at all times been a high-risk journey. Along with the unfold of contagious illnesses because of the mixing of thousands and thousands of individuals, there have been main tragedies in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2003. Many of those had been avoidable incidents, as they occurred attributable to stampedes brought on by pilgrims taking an unspecified route or going within the fallacious path, ignoring the rituals of the Hajj. Since then, Saudi authorities have widened the paths, including new flooring to the Haram in Mecca to permit pilgrims to finish the journey peacefully.