NY Times:
BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 717 people were killed, and 863 were injured, in a stampede near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday morning.
The deaths — at an intersection in Mina, about six miles east of the city — occurred around 9 a.m. on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest holidays in the Muslim calendar, and as millions of Muslims were making their pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca.
It appeared to be the deadliest accident duringthe hajj since 1990, when 1,426 pilgrimsperished in a stampede in a tunnel linking Mecca and Mina. And it occurred less than two weeks after a large construction crane toppled and crashed into the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing at least 111 people and injuring 394 others.
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Truly, I don't experience any schadenfreude over this (my mother did her own hajj a couple decades ago), but it seems that these hajj-related stampedes happen so frequently. I mean, WTF. Get your sh*t together a little, no?
So much for being faithful, ay?
This kind of stuff happens every year, so does anyone ask why the allmighty god/allah/whatever does not protect those who heed the call to come to makkeh to perform their duty as a moslem?
Dear Amir--this is obviously another Jewish / Western / Saudi conspiracy to kill the Muslims, just like ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, etc. are...
Seriously, what do you expect when you pack almost two million Third World citizens--who, let's face it, are not really obedient of law and order (have you seen "lines" in these countries at banks, airports, etc., where they're literally on top of one another?--into a small space like Mecca? I'm surprised that tragedies like this don't happen more often!
PS- As I'm sure you know, the Hajj ritual in a pre-Islam pagan desert Arab tradition that was incorporated into Islam by Mohamed when he made "peace" with Meccan trbies in exchange for their acceptance of his blood cult being the dominant one. He incorporated the ritual to keep those whose livelihoods depended on it (such as animal sellers for sacrifice, etc.) happy.
Dear COP- That's the question that I always ask: where's Allah in all this?
PS- FarsNews puts the number of dead over 1000, 90 of them Iranian --which at 9% is a pretty big percentage, considering all the other countries that send pilgrims. You know what this means: Saudi / Jewish conspiracy against Iranains:
http://farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13940702000231
Dear AO: well said, my friend!
The pope is in DC and millions came to visit him and not a single person was injured!
I'd say Muslims are just not civilized and it becomes a hindrance when you are not!
There is a simple solution to this problem AO.
If Mecca, like Disney opens several theme parks around the Middle East and Asia, then the Muslims can stay in their own country and do the Haj thing!
And help the local economy!
Brothers.
you should consider your self very luck to die during Haj. these brothers who died during the Haj are the luckiest of all muslems. right now in the other world in the paradise they are getting the kind of stuff you can only dream about or watch on internet while using your hands on yourself.