RELIGION-MIDEAST: Politics, Protests at Haj Closely Watched

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

N Janardhan

DUBAI, Feb 11 2003 (IPS) - This year’s Haj, or Great Pilgrimage to Mecca, is about prayers, but may well attract politics and protests too, because it is happening ahead of an expected U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

So far, the Haj – which has drawn some two million Muslims from 170 countries – has remained within the parametres defined by host Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines.

But in the midst of a looming war in Iraq, many Muslims are finding the huge gathering an opportunity to exchange views with fellow Muslims, and express their frustration and anger against the United States, Israel and even Arab leaders.

”My first priority is to fulfill my religious obligation,” said Mohammed Mustafa, a driver from the UAE, referring to his Mecca prayers – one of the Five Pillars of Islam. ”But I’ll also pray for peace both in Iraq and Palestine,” Mustafa added in a phone interview.

Haj is required of all Muslims once in their lifetime provided they are physically, mentally and financially able. Saudi Arabia is home to the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

The five-day Haj started on Sunday and will trace the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago. Starting with Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) on Tuesday, every pilgrim will sacrifice a sheep and stone three pillars representing Satan.

Pilgrims began the symbolic stoning Tuesday. Despite tight security measures in place, a stampede erupted during the stoning ritual in Mina, just outside Mecca, on Tuesday. At least 14 people were killed in the latest such incident to happen during the Haj – there have been at least six Haj disasters, including 35 killed people in 2001 and 118 in 1998.

Meantime, Mustafa’s sentiments about Iraq and the Middle East were shared by other pilgrims. ”America is not after Saddam. It is looking to humiliate Muslims all over the world,” Kareemullah Shariff, a medical student, pointed out.

That echoed a statement by a Palestinian resistance force leader. Hamas chief Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Al Jazeera television Sunday that ”war on Iraq is a war on Muslims. Americans invading Iraq must be buried there”.

Even Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh addressed the pilgrims on Friday. ”The struggle today is religious and economic. The enemies are trying to use any pretext to attack this nation” to control its economy,” he said, without directly mentioning U.S. threats against Iraq.

”The Muslim Nation is being targeted for its economy, values and unity. The enemies are trying to keep it away from its religion,” he was quoted as saying. ”The enemies have accused the Muslim nation of calling for ‘terrorism’.”

But the mufti also appealed to pilgrims ”not to politicise the pilgrimage and refrain from demonstrations or raising slogans”.

Media reports say there are nearly 24,000 Iraqi pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, staying close to the camp comprising 7,000 U.S. Muslims and 1,000 Palestinians approved by Israeli authorities to make the pilgrimage.

Portraits of President Saddam Hussein donned the periphery of the Iraqi camp, clubbed with occasional anti-U.S. slogans, the same reports say.

”I hate him for invading Kuwait in 1990. He is also responsible for the 1980-88 Gulf war. But now, he is the only symbol of Muslim resistance against Zionist and American forces,” Khaled al-Loughani, a businessman from Kuwait, said in an interview.

The wide mix of people, sensitive political sentiments and the Haj taking place at a time of international uncertainty – especially for the Middle East and for Muslims – has made a jittery Saudi Arabia deploy thousands of troops to maintain order.

It has vowed to crack down on any ”terrorist” group trying to disturb calm during the religious pilgrimage. Saudi authorities have insisted that the pilgrimage should remain solely a religious ritual.

”Our precautionary security measures this year are of the highest order…terrorist organisations seeking to tamper with our security during the Haj will be dealt with an iron fist,” Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said last week.

Thus far, special forces wearing masks, commando units in black berets and armoured cars mounted with machineguns, backed by some 3,000 police troops are watching over the pilgrims. Helicopters hovered over religious sites and roadblocks scrutinised all entrances to the holy sites.

Such was the precaution Riyadh took to ward off any disturbance that it banned the Qatari television network Al-Jazeera from covering the Haj. Instead, the channel broadcast the rituals with television footage borrowed from other networks.

The immensely popular Arabic channel is seen as a source of anti-establishment incitement and trouble by many governments in the region.

In truth, the Saudi and Qatari governments have been at odds since the presentation by Al-Jazeera in June of a debate during which participants denounced a Middle East peace plan forwarded by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, criticised Saudi Arabia’s founding Saud family and accused Riyadh of having betrayed the Palestinian cause.

The pilgrimage has acquired a political and violent colour in the past.

In an attempt to challenge Saudi Arabia’s role of leadership in the Muslim world and discredit its custodianship of the holy places, the Ayatollah Khomeini regime in Iran sent provocateurs to disrupt the 1982 Haj.

Tensions mounted in subsequent years, until 1987 when more than 400 people, mostly Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in Mecca.

Last year’s Haj too was seen as a potential source of trouble. But most Muslims viewed U.S. attacks on Afghanistan as aimed mostly at Taliban and al-Qaeda after the Sep. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

This year, the equation has changed, and the Haj is taking place at a time of restiveness among many Muslim countries and communities around the world due to imminent conflict in Iraq, the U.S. ‘war on terror’ after Sep. 11 and its stance in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Some have also been venting fury at what they call the silence of Arab leaders in the face of looming action against Iraq.

”It is a shame that Arab leaders are publicly expressing helplessness if the United States attacks Iraq,” Shariff said in response to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s admission last week that Arabs were helpless if Washington decides to attack Iraq. ”Forget support through action, it’s now not even forthcoming with words,” he added.