No Suitcases At Mecca

The Saudi Government has announced that in the future all carry on luggage, bags, suitcases, backpacks, etc. will be banned from Mecca during the Haj in order to avoid incidents like this.

Stampede kills Mecca pilgrims by the hundreds
Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Mansour al-Turki said the deaths occurred after some pilgrims began to trip over luggage that had spilled from a moving bus.

Of course this kind of news story makes Islam and Muslims look like primitive peoples You know unable to be civilized in public space, pushing shoving, throwing stones, doing strange ritualistic rites, down right tribalistic. But stampedes occur world wide, including in the west during Soccer games.

Backgrounder: Major lethal stampedes last year

Cash and coupons lure 42 to death in Chennai

Or perhaps its just how the media in the West portray it. Do ya think. Like if there were not accidents, incidents, or attacks by terrorists there would be no news about the Haj. It's the only time the western media reports on this major religious holiday. Unlike Christmas at the Vatican.

These aren't accidents, they are preventable incidents, but the Saudi's have failed to do anything about it.

Hajj crowd-pressure must be eased to avoid tragedy New Scientist

But experts say the sheer scale of the stoning ritual makes it inherently dangerous. "There's a huge risk and potential for accidents whenever you have so many people in a tightly confined space," says Keith Still, an expert on crowd behaviour at UK company Crowd Dynamics. "There's a limit to what can be done."

In 1990, 1462 pilgrims were killed in a crush within a tunnel leading to the site and in 2004 another crush caused the death of 251 people. Similar accidents also occurred in 1997 and 1998.

Funny that. Perhaps they should hire the Engineering Firm Bin Laden to solve the problem. Nope on second thought that may not be such a good idea. Mecca hostel collapse prompts rare media criticism

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - The death of 76 people in a Muslim pilgrims' hostel in Mecca before the annual haj prompted a rare flurry of media criticism of Saudi authorities on Saturday.

"Yet another building has collapsed, and with each one the bad management, bad supervision, and nonchalance of the concerned authorities are revealed," columnist Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashed wrote in the main Saudi daily Ashraq al-Awsat.

An Interior Ministry official, who said it was still not clear what caused the collapse, told journalists the hostel had been licensed by the Industry and Trade Ministry.

Or is it just that the statist Saudi's with their army and police can't do the responsible thing and protect public safety, looking the other way at the exploitation of the pilgrims by their own profiteers. Ah say it ain't so.

Still, a report in the daily al-Riyadh newspaper said: "The state is pumping millions into the haj and honest businessmen are sticking to rules, but some who look for quick gain embarrass the country before the international community."

I think given the choice between the luggage is to blame and the Saudi's abidcate responsibilty while cashing in on pilgrams I will chose the latter.

Saudi officials are being blamed for not having taken the necessary measures, yet they complain of “unruly” pilgrims.

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Mecca
Haj
Islam
Muslims
pilgrams
Saudi Arabia