Re: Tears for Haramayn

The stampede that led to the unfortunate death of hundreds of pilgrims in Mina, Saudi Arabia has apparently given Iran and its sympathizers the rope they have been looking for to hang the custodians of the two of the three holiest places in Islam. This is not to say that the Saudi authorities are beyond being criticised, far from it. For all those who have been monitoring the annual Hajj exercise, it is clear that Iran has been doing all in their power to portray Saudi Arabia as incompetent and incapable of organizing the spiritual exercise (which perhaps explains why Iran/Shiites are involved in virtually all incidents happening during Hajj). According to a report by Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, an Iranian official, talking about the events that led to the stampede, said:
“Violations began when a group of 300 Iranian pilgrims started moving from Muzdalifa straight to Jamarat, instead of first going to their camps as is generally practiced by HajJ pilgrims, to wait for the time of movement of their group. Then they moved in the opposite direction on Street 203 where the painful incident took place.”
The Asharq Al-Awsat also said there were cameras in Jamarat, which revealed the details of the incident and confirmed the Iranian group’s wrong move. That actually was time for Turkish pilgrims to come out. But that is not even the issue; the issue is Adamu Adamu’s reduction of the annual hajj exercise to a comparison with the game of soccer. In his quest to promote Iran’s position, which is not unknown to the whole world, he said: “The World Cup, for instance, is organised by the Federation International de Football Association, FIFA, and not by Brazil, the best footballing nation or by England, where football was invented. And if doing this was necessary for a temporal ritual affair it would have been even much more so for a spiritual one.”Someone should tell Malam Adamu that World Cup can be played in virtually every country since all you need is the round leather, 22 players, four officials, spectators, etc. But not so with Hajj. Makkah and Madina are geographically in Saudi Arabia, same way Karbala is in Iraq, or Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. You cannot move the Ka’aba to, say, Bauchi simply because you think the Hajj exercise should not be left to Saudi Arabia alone to manage. Anytime pilgrims abscond, as they often do, it is Saudi Arabia that feels the pinch by their illegal presence, not the Muslim world. Even in the case of World Cup, in case Adamu does not know, the host country takes care of security, granting of visas, and others. It is not FIFA that provides security, or issues visa. What Iran is asking for is a role that it cannot have. If they are not satisfied, they can go back to Karbala, where they have been doing as they like without any interference.
Fateema B. Bello.Jimeta-Yola
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