Saudi Arabia suspends Umrah pilgrimage for Saudi citizens, residents

Saudi Arabia suspended Umrah pilgrimages to the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina for Saudi citizens and the kingdom's other residents due to coronavirus concerns, state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia reported its first case of the new coronavirus on Monday from an individual who had not disclosed his visit to Iran when entering Saudi Arabia.

"Based on the recommendations of the committee appointed to monitor coronavirus...it has been decided to suspend Umrah for citizens and residents in the kingdom," SPA said, citing an official source in the Saudi interior ministry.

The decision will be reviewed regularly and reversed when the situation changes, it added.

Saudi Arabia last week halted Umrah visas for foreigners and banned Gulf citizens from visiting the two cities because of the virus.

It also banned tourists from at least 25 countries where the virus has been found, and on Tuesday it limited arrivals of travelers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Pilgrimage is big business for Saudi Arabia and is the backbone of plans to develop tourism under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious economic reform agenda.

Visits by pilgrims accelerate during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, beginning this year in late April. In late July, some 2 million pilgrims are expected for the week-long haj, the world's largest annual gathering of Muslims, which has a separate visa regime.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hajj begins

Muslim pilgrims face the Kaaba as they pray at the Grand Mosque during the annual Hajj in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have arrived in the kingdom to participate in the annual pilgrimage, a mandatory religious duty that must be carried out at least once by every adult Muslim who is physically and financially capable of making the journey.

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More than 2 million Muslims begin hajj pilgrimage

MECCA - More than 2 million Muslims begin the annual hajj on Friday as the Saudi hosts seek to deter politicization of the pilgrimage against a backdrop of simmering Gulf tensions.

The hajj, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, is one of Islam's five pillars and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives.

It consists of a series of religious rites which are completed over five days in Islam's holiest city and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia.

"All of the arms of state have been deployed (and) we are proud to serve as 'God's hosts'," said security forces spokesman Bassam Attia.

In total some 2.5 million faithful, the majority from abroad, will undertake the pilgrimage this year, according to local media.

"More than 1.8 million visas were delivered online without the need for middlemen. It's a success," said hajj ministry official Hatim bin Hassan Qadi.

"We feel cleansed by achieving this pillar of Islam and meeting people from across the world. It's marvellous," said Mohamed Jaafar, a 40-year-old Egyptian pilgrim.



'AN INDESCRIBABLE FEELING'

"It's an indescribable feeling. You have to live it to understand it," said an Algerian in his fifties completing the pilgrimage for the first time.

"It's a golden opportunity and moment," said his female companion.

Mecca, built in a desert valley, is home to the Kaaba, a cube structure that is the focal point of Islam and draped in a gold-embroidered black cloth.

Muslims around the world pray towards the Kaaba, which is located in the Grand Mosque, and pilgrims walk around it seven times.

Worshipers will participate in weekly prayers late on Friday morning.

During the pilgrimage separate streams of men and women, grouped by nationality, will travel to Mina on foot or in buses provided by the authorities.

A district of Mecca, Mina sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains and is transformed each year into a vast encampment for pilgrims.

A total of "350,000 air-conditioned tents have been pitched," said a Saudi official.

Worshipers will climb Mount Arafat, also known as the "Mount of Mercy", for hours of prayers and Koran recitals.

After descending, they will gather pebbles and perform the symbolic "stoning of the devil".

That marks the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, marked on Sunday.

Pilgrims then return to the Grand Mosque to perform a final "tawaf" or walk around the Kaaba.

'POLITICIZING THE HAJJ'

This year's hajj takes place to a backdrop of Gulf tensions following a series of attacks on tankers, the downing of drones and maritime traffic being intercepted.

Riyadh blames regional foe Tehran for the attacks on commercial shipping, accusations Iran vehemently denies.

Despite the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries, some 88,550 Iranian pilgrims are due to take part in the hajj this year according to the Tasnim news agency.

As in previous years, Saudi authorities have been at pains to stress that the hajj is a religious event and have sought to prevent its politicization.

Riyadh claimed its two-year embargo on Doha -- which includes restrictions on Qataris travelling to the kingdom -- would not affect the pilgrimage.

But hajj official Hassan Qadi acknowledged "very few Qataris have come to Mecca for the pilgrimage".

Saudi's hajj ministry accused Qatar of "politicizing the hajj and creating obstacles for Qatari pilgrims," the SPA state news agency reported.

The scale of the pilgrimage presents vast security and logistical challenges, with tens of thousands of safety officers deployed.

Riyadh faced strong criticism in 2015 when some 2,300 worshipers were killed in the worst stampede in the gathering's history.

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Death toll at Saudi haj crush rises to 310 - Saudi civil defence

DUBAI - The death toll from a crush of pilgrims on Thursday during the annual Muslim haj in Saudi Arabia has risen to 310 people of various nationalities, the Saudi civil defence said.

It said that civil defence teams were still trying to deal with the disaster, caused by large numbers of people pushing at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Another 450 pilgrims were wounded, it said.

The pilgrimage, the world's largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of deadly disasters in the past, including stampedes, tent fires and riots.

The last major incident in haj took place in 2006, when at least 346 pilgrims were killed as they attempted to perform the stoning of the devil at Jamarat.

However, massive infrastructure upgrades and extensive spending on crowd control technology over the past two decades had made such events far less common.

Street 204 is one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by hurling pebbles at three large pillars.

Reuters reporters in another part of Mina said they could hear police and ambulance sirens, but that roads leading to the site of the disaster had been blocked to prevent a further crowds developing.

Photographs published on the civil defence Twitter feed showed pilgrims lying on stretchers while emergency workers in high-visibility jackets lifted them into an ambulance.

It said more than 220 ambulances and 4,000 rescue workers had been sent to the stampede's location to help the wounded. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television channel showed a convoy of ambulances driving through the Mina camp.

"Work is underway to separate large groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes," the Saudi Civil Defence said on its Twitter account.

Thursday is also Eid al-Adha, when Muslims slaughter a sheep. It has traditionally been the most dangerous day of haj because vast numbers of pilgrims attempt to perform rituals at the same time in a single location.

Two weeks ago 110 people died in Mecca's Grand Mosque when a crane working on an expansion project collapsed during a storm and toppled off the roof into the main courtyard, crushing pilgrims underneath.

Such disasters are politically sensitive for the kingdom's ruling Al Saud dynasty, which presents itself internationally as the guardians of orthodox Islam and custodians of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.

King Salman, like his predecessors, is officially styled "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques".

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