Medina

Saudi Arabia has banned international visitors from making the annual Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, this year in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Riyadh — Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended visas for visits to Islam’s holiest sites for the “umrah” pilgrimage, an unprecedented move triggered by coronavirus fears that raises questions over the hajj, which starts in July.

ANKARA, Turkey — The fiancee of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has expressed “shock and sadness” over reports suggesting that his body may have been dissolved with chemicals.

Pakistan’s new prime minister, former cricket player Imran Khan, is in Saudi Arabia as part of his first official overseas trip.

Less than two months after Saudi Arabia announced it would lift a decades-old ban on female drivers, the kingdom has legalized yoga, held its first women’s basketball tournament, and announced that it will allow Saudi women to work for the Ministry of Justice.

TEL AVIV — Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Sheikh, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia who also serves as head of the council of the most influential clerics in the country, has criticized the organizers of the “September 15 Movement” that calls for reform in the kingdom.

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to the cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia which all Muslims are encouraged to undertake at least once in their lifetimes. This year’s Hajj season comes amid several major domestic and international challenges for the Saudis.

On Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan threatened destruction against every part of Saudi Arabia, except the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, if hostilities should erupt between the two countries.

Iran will hit back at most of Saudi Arabia with the exception of Islam’s holiest places if the kingdom does anything “ignorant”, Tehran’s defense minister was quoted as saying on Sunday after a Saudi prince threatened to move the “battle” to Iran.

A photo of two young female students selling tea in the streets of Medina has gone viral in Saudi Arabia, where female labor was taboo until recently.

In a message relayed by Iranian state media, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Muslim nations to “fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of hajj.”

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renewed criticism of Saudi Arabia over how it runs the haj after a crush last year killed hundreds of pilgrims, and suggested Muslim countries think about ending Riyadh’s control of the annual pilgrimage.

Jihadists killed an estimated 421 people and wounded at least another 729 in nearly 15 countries during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year, marking one of the bloodiest Ramadans in modern history. The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has been

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JAFFA, Israel – Saudi public opinion has been reeling from Monday’s deadly bombing at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, considered the second-holiest site for Muslims.

A suicide bombing that killed four security force members and wounded five others took place in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Medina near the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, marking the third attack in the kingdom amid Ramadan violence.

State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion Monday near one of Islam’s holiest sites in the city of Medina, as two suicide bombers struck in different cities without killing anyone.

JAFFA, Israel – A Saudi hospital manager has been arrested on charges of abuse of power and violation of Sharia law after he had an affair with an employee in exchange for a promise to promote her.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalated another notch on Monday morning, as the Saudis announced the suspension of air travel to and from Iran.

Palestinians on their way to Saudi Arabia as part of a holly pilgrimage to Mecca were surprised to discover handbags ordained with Hebrew script, according to eyewitnesses.

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(Reuters) – In making a blaze of largesse and the dismissal of relatively liberal clerics two of his first acts as monarch, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has signaled his approach to big future challenges may differ from that of his liberalizing late brother.

The continuing flare-ups on Saudi Arabia’s northern border with Iraq has led some to believe that the Islamic State is set on an eventual push towards the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.