MECCA, Saudi Arabia — White-robed
worshippers from around the world have packed the streets of Islam’s holiest
city ahead of the biggest
hajj pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic began.
اضافة اعلان
Banners welcoming the faithful, including the first
international visitors since 2019, adorned squares and alleys, while armed
security forces patrolled the ancient city, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed.
“This is pure joy,”
Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Qader
Kheder told AFP in Mecca, before the event which officially starts Wednesday.
“I almost can’t believe I am here. I am enjoying every moment.”
One million people, including 850,000 from abroad,
are allowed at this year’s hajj after two years of drastically curtailed
numbers due to the pandemic. The pilgrimage is one of five pillars of Islam,
which all able-bodied
Muslims with the means are required to perform at least
once.
On Monday afternoon, pilgrims carrying umbrellas to
shield themselves from the scorching sun flocked to souvenir and barber shops
in Mecca, while others shared meals under palm trees on streets close to the
Grand Mosque.
Many new arrivals had already begun performing the
first ritual, which requires walking seven times around the Kaaba, the large
black cubic structure at the center of the Grand Mosque.
Made from granite and draped in a cloth featuring
verses from the Quran, the Kaaba stands nearly 15m tall. It is the structure
all Muslims turn towards to pray, no matter where they are in the world.
“When I first saw the Kaaba I felt something weird
and started crying,” Egyptian pilgrim Mohammed Lotfi told AFP.
At least 650,000 overseas pilgrims have arrived so
far in Saudi Arabia, the authorities said on Sunday.
In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in the
rituals, which also include gathering at Mount Arafat and “stoning the devil”
in Mina.
The following year, when the pandemic took hold,
foreigners were barred and worshippers were restricted to just 10,000 to stop
the hajj from turning into a global super-spreader.
That figure rose to 60,000 fully vaccinated Saudi
citizens and residents in 2021.
Pilgrims this year — only those younger than 65 are
allowed — will participate in the hajj under strict sanitary conditions.
The hajj has seen numerous disasters over the years,
including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 people and a 1979 attack by
hundreds of gunmen that, according to the official toll, left 153 dead.
Unaccompanied women
The pilgrimage is a powerful
source of prestige for the conservative desert kingdom.
Days after the hajj,
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will welcome US President Joe Biden who, with oil prices soaring
following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, is
a money-spinner for the world’s biggest oil exporter trying to diversify its
economy. In normal years the pilgrimage brings in billions of dollars.
Saudi Arabia — which has under recent reforms
permitted raves in Riyadh and mixed-gender beaches in Jeddah — now allows women
to attend the hajj unaccompanied by male relatives, a requirement that was
dropped last year.
‘Serenity’
Masks are no longer
compulsory in most enclosed spaces in Saudi Arabia but they will be mandatory
at the
Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam. Pilgrims from abroad will have
to submit a negative PCR test result.
The Grand Mosque will be “washed 10 times a day ...
by more than 4,000 ... workers”, with more than 130,000 liters of disinfectant
used each time, authorities said.
Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has
registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, 9,000 of them fatal, in a
population of about 34 million.
Aside from COVID, another challenge is the scorching
sun in one of the world’s hottest and driest regions, which is becoming even
more extreme through the effects of climate change.
Although summer has only just begun, temperatures
have already topped 50°C in parts of Saudi Arabia.
But Iraqi pilgrim Ahmed Abdul-Hassan Al-Fatlawi said
the heat is the last thing he thinks of when in Mecca.
“I am 60 years old, so it’s normal if I get
physically tired because of the hot weather, but I am in a state of serenity,
and that’s all that matters to me,” he told AFP.
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