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Countries Claim Victims After Deadly Hajj Stampede Near Mecca Hajj Tragedy Inflames Schisms During a Pilgrimage Designed for Unity
(about 9 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The human crush that killed more than 700 pilgrims near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, echoed across the Muslim world on Friday as countries from Africa, Asia and Europe claimed citizens from among the dead and as some called for changes in pilgrimage procedures to ensure greater safety. BEIRUT, Lebanon — For the two million Muslims from across the world performing the hajj in Saudi Arabia this year, the annual pilgrimage is a time to forget the differences in race, sect, wealth and even nationality that divide believers and focus instead on their equality before God.
The roughly two million people performing the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, proceeded with its final rituals. Saudi officials blamed disorderly pilgrims for the deaths while proceeding with an official investigation. But when tragedy strikes, as with the massive human crush that killed more than 700 pilgrims near a holy site on Thursday, those differences come rushing back to the surface.
The Saudi government said that 719 people were killed and more than 860 were hurt. It has yet to provide a breakdown of their nationalities, but a number of countries have announced their own tolls, highlighting the international scope of both the pilgrimage and the tragedy. A Saudi official blamed the tragedy on African pilgrims, prompting accusations of racism. Iran fired up its state apparatus to lambast Saudi Arabia, its sectarian and regional rival, over its crowd management. And some questioned Saudi Arabia’s right to solely oversee sites of pre-eminent importance to the world’s nearly 1.6 billion Muslims.
The Associated Press quoted an official from Pakistan as saying on Friday that 236 of its citizens were missing in the deadly stampede, which would make Pakistan the country with the highest toll so far. The fact that such schisms can so swiftly cloud a mass rite meant to emphasize Muslim unity disappoints many who wish for greater international cooperation.
The authorities in Egypt reported 14 dead and 30 missing. India said 14 of its pilgrims had died in the stampede; Pakistan, seven; and Indonesia and Kenya, three each. Many of the dead are believed to be from African countries that have not yet announced their tolls. “Hajj is the great unifier,” said Khaled Almaeena, a Saudi writer and editor who has taken part in the rite many times. “But it is unfortunate that you can’t use the hajj for a greater good, because the concept of hajj in Islam is to get people together.”
The second-highest toll reported so far is from Iran, which said 131 of its citizens were killed. The country is locked in a fierce regional rivalry with Saudi Arabia that has taken the form of a proxy war in Yemen and elsewhere, and Iranian officials have used the deaths to lash out anew at Saudi leaders. Worldly divisions often intrude, even though all the pilgrims wear simple, white gowns meant to promote the sense of equality, and the theological rifts that divide Shiites, Sunnis and other sects are easily set aside in Mecca since all perform the same rituals.
The stampede dominated Friday Prayer sessions in Tehran, with worshipers chanting for the death of the Saudi royal family. “You could be an Arab prince, you could be a South Asian construction worker, you could be an Afghan warlord and you are all wearing the same clothes and you just walk through this barren landscape and it is miserably hot,” said Basharat Peer, an Indian journalist who has written about Mecca and the hajj.
Leading prayer at Tehran University, one imam, Ayatollah Mahmoud Emami Kashani, said that Saudi allegations of disorderly behavior by the pilgrims were “absurd.” The ayatollah, speaking before thousands, said that Saudi officials should be taken to court and tried for incompetence. “But when you look a little more carefully,” he added, “what you see is that even during the hajj, the distinctions of wealth and class do not disappear.”
After prayers, many worshipers came out to demonstrate, urged along by text messages from the cellphone company calling for “spontaneous protests.” Waving black flags, they shouted, “the Saudi regime is friends of Satan” and “the security of pilgrims is no longer guaranteed.” Many have criticized the Saudi authorities’ development of the sites, replacing nearby mountains with luxury hotels where wealthy Muslims can pay huge sums for hotel rooms with a view of the Kaaba, the black structure in the middle of the Grand Mosque toward which Muslims pray.
In Iraq, former Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who is close to Tehran, said the episode was “proof of the incompetence of the organizers of the pilgrimage season,” although no Iraqis were known to be among the dead. That is a profoundly different pilgrimage from that of the many poor Muslims from Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere who sleep far from the holy sites and have little recourse from the often sweltering weather, Mr. Peer said.
Criticism from other countries was more muted or lacking. The Saudi government said that 719 people were killed in the stampede, and many of the victims were from countries across Africa and Asia, highlighting the great diversity of the pilgrimage but also revealing the Muslim community’s fractures.
The news media in India reported the accident and the deaths but without accusation, most likely because people are more focused on the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States and because mass tramplings occur regularly at religious festivals at home. The highest confirmed death toll came from Iran, which said 131 of its citizens were killed. A Shiite-led state, Iran is locked in a fierce regional battle for influence with Sunni Saudi Arabia, and Tehran swiftly used the crisis to condemn the Saudi kingdom and to question its right to control the holy sites.
But in Turkey, Mehmet Ali Sahin, the vice chairman of the governing party, said the event could not be swept away as a result of fate and accused the Saudi authorities of not taking sufficient precautions. During Friday Prayer at Tehran University, one imam, Ayatollah Mahmoud Emami Kashani, dismissed Saudi allegations of disorderly behavior by the pilgrims as “absurd.” Addressing a crowd of thousands who chanted for the death of the Saudi royal family, he called for Saudi officials to be tried on charges of incompetence.
“There cannot be an excuse for this,” he said, according to the Dogan News Agency. “Deaths have happened due to neglect. I hope these will not be experienced after this.” After the prayer, worshipers poured into the streets to demonstrate, urged by text messages from a cellphone company calling for “spontaneous protests.” Waving black flags, they shouted, “The Saudi regime is friends of Satan” and “The security of pilgrims is no longer guaranteed.”
Saudi Arabia’s oversight of the pilgrimage and of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina is a relatively new development in Islam, and some called for one of the religion’s most important rites to be administered by others. Iranian allies across the Middle East carried the same tune. Former Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq said the episode was “proof of the incompetence of the organizers of the pilgrimage season.” In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said the hajj tragedies reflected a “malfunction in the administration.”
“Our pain is so great. This should not continue like this,” wrote Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, the mayor of Ankara, on Twitter. He appears to have deleted his comment. While Saudi officials appealed for all to await the results of an official investigation, initial reports said that large groups of pilgrims had collided on streets that had few escapes, causing the human crush. Some said that security forces had temporarily blocked passageways, causing panic and aggravating the crowding.
“Let them deliver the problem to us; let us solve it,” he wrote, apparently calling for a harking back to previous centuries when the pilgrimage was overseen by the Ottoman Empire. The head of the central hajj committee, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, blamed the accident on “some pilgrims from African nationalities,” eliciting charges of racism from those who accuse Gulf Arabs of looking down on blacks. Other Saudi citizens cast the blame back at Iran.
Dr. Khalid al-Saud, a member of the royal family, wrote on Twitter that “the time has come to think — in a serious way — about banning ‘Iranians’ from coming to Mecca, for the safety of the pilgrims.”
Sabq, a prominent Saudi news site, published a report based on unnamed “eyewitnesses” claiming that the stampede was caused by Iranian pilgrims.
Officials in Pakistan said that eight of its citizens had been confirmed dead in the stampede and that 236 people were missing, although 86 of them were later found to be safe, The Associated Press reported.
While Pakistan has received much military and financial aid from Saudi Arabia, resulting in an often deferential stance by the Pakistani government toward the kingdom, relations were strained this year after Pakistan refused to contribute troops to a Saudi-led offensive in Yemen.
On social media, some Pakistanis expressed outrage over the perceived callousness of the Saudi authorities after the stampede.
Sarah Ahmed, a development consultant who lost track of a relative briefly after the stampede, said the governments of Pakistan and other Muslim countries should have a role in the pilgrimage.
“The Islamic world needs to push for reforms in the arrangement and management of the hajj,” she said.
Saudi Arabia’s control of the pilgrimage and of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina is a relatively new development in Islam, so it was not without reason that officials from other predominantly Muslim countries called for oversight to be given to others. But the idea has not gained much traction.
“Our pain is so great,” wrote Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, the mayor of Ankara, on Twitter. Turkish authorities said that at least four Turks were among the dead.
“Let them deliver the problem to us; let us solve it,” Mr. Gokcek wrote online, apparently calling for a return to the arrangement of previous centuries when the pilgrimage was overseen by the Ottoman Empire. He later deleted his post.
Most pilgrims say that such political issues have no effect on how they experience the hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able bodied Muslim who can afford the trip and one of the five pillars of Islam.
For many, the hajj is a milestone reached only after years of saving, a fact that only increases the anger when Saudis get caught, say, doing their religious duties without bothering to get out of their S.U.V.s.
Mr. Almaeena, the Saudi writer and editor, said that the Saudi government had worked to make the hajj affordable to all by providing health care and other services as well as a train to carry pilgrims between Mecca and Medina.
Still, he acknowledged that the hajj was easier for some pilgrims than for others.
“If there are people who want to have caviar in the morning they can, but for me the spirit of hajj goes away,” he said.