3 million Muslims begin annual hajj pilgrim in Mecca
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You "spin" me right round, baby right round...
MECCA, Saudi Arabia: Nearly 3 million Muslims from around the world, chanting "I am here, Lord" and raising their hands to heaven, marched through a desert valley outside Mecca on Thursday in the first day of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Dressed in seamless white robes symbolizing the equality of mankind under God, the pilgrims hiked through the 13-kilometer (8 miles) valley to Mina, starting a series of rituals in which they cleanse themselves of sin.
"The hajj is a school for teaching unity, mercy and cooperation."
For pilgrims streaming in from all continents, the hajj is a crowning moment of faith, a duty for all able-bodied Muslims to carry out at least once. On Thursday morning, as they have for the past few days, hundreds of thousands opened their pilgrimage by circling the Kaaba, the black cubic stone in Mecca, Islam's holiest site, which Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.
"For us it is a vacation away from work and daily life to renew yourself spiritually," said Ahmed Karkoutly, an American doctor from Brownsville, Texas. "You feel you part of a universe fulfilling God's will. It's a cosmic motion, orbiting the Kaaba."
Remember the days of God is Dead? Or the povwer of myth? Or when anything Christian was vigorously attacked as fairy tale and "the opiate of the masses"?
The AP article above impresses me in the matter of fact way it assumes the reality of the Hajj without any question or objection. Does the media care to analyze why Islam is so violent when the rituals observed at the Hajj culminate in a stoning of the devil?
Saudi Arabia spent more than $1 billion over the past year on a project to renovate the stoning site, where the massive crowds of pilgrims file past three stone walls symbolizing the devil to pelt them with stones. New entrances and exits were added around the walls to ease the flow of traffic, and this year authorities made repeated announcements to pilgrims not to bring luggage to the site.
On Thursday, the crowds filtered out of Mecca toward Mina through the desert valley, chanting, "Labbeik, allahum, labbeik," Arabic for "I am here, Lord."
They will spend the night in a tent city in Mina before heading Friday for Mount Arafat, the site where Muhammad gave his final sermon in 632. There they spend the day and night in prayer and meditation before returning the Mina for the stoning ritual.
It is easy to confuse the difference between a "devil" and "a person of the devil". Christians went through a period of burning heretics and drowning accused witches, and grew out of it. The Muslims are only acting out their fight with evil when they behead or stone sinners. This year 3 million Muslims will have a chance to blur the lines again.
Labels: Christianity vs Islam, Hajj, Islam, Kaaba, Main Stream Media, Mecca, Mohammed
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