Mina (Saudi Arabia) – Thousands of cleaners are busy separating plastic from other rubbish as more than two million Muslims wrap up a pilgrimage to Mecca that presents a huge environmental challenge for Saudi Arabia.
MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Mansour al-Amer swipes a card to reveal a narrow sleep pod, reminiscent of Japan’s famed capsule hotels. But this pod is in Saudi Arabia, where the Muslim hajj pilgrimage begins Sunday.
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj, which observant Muslims are supposed to make at least once during their lives, officially begins on August 19. Mecca is located in Saudi Arabia, which is currently embroiled in serious disputes with Muslim nations such as Qatar, Iran, and Yemen, as well as Western countries with Muslim citizens who wish to make the pilgrimage, most notably Canada.
TEL AVIV – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei celebrated his 79th birthday on Monday by calling for the destruction of Israel and slamming President Donald Trump’s as yet unveiled peace plan as a “satanic, vicious plot.”
Ahead of this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took the opportunity to once again blast Saudi Arabia over what is known as the “Mina Stampede,” which left nearly 800 Muslims dead in 2015.
SAUDI police have arrested young men who were sprayed with confetti in a “gay wedding video”. Mecca police made the arrests after the men were seen walking side by side on a carpet at an outdoor festival in the holy city.
A Tennessee imam delivered a conspiracy theory-laden sermon on Friday in which he warned that “Zionists” are planning to destroy Islam’s most revered site.
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.
TEL AVIV — Saudi Arabia’s Information Ministry has reprimanded a Saudi journalist for writing that the slaughter of animals during the Muslim holiday of Eid ad-Adha isn’t an obligation under Islamic law.
Saudi Arabia is declaring this year’s Hajj pilgrimage a success, with some two million visitors expected in Mecca, Medina, and surrounding holy sites. Previous years have sometimes been marked by tragedy, and this year’s event came amid a series of political challenges for the Saudis, but so far there has been nothing like the deadly 2015 stampede that killed hundreds of people.
The Islamic hajj pilgrimage draws people from around the world to Saudi Arabia each year. The crowds, squeezed shoulder to shoulder in prayer five times a day, fill the city of Mecca and surrounding areas to perform a number of physically demanding and intricate rites.
Two million Muslims pilgrims from around the world took part Friday in the symbolic stoning of the devil in Saudi Arabia, with tight security measures in place two years after a deadly stampede.
Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has for the ninth year in a row allocated funds to five hundred families of Palestinian “martyrs” – someone viewed to have died on behalf of the Palestinian national cause – to perform the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is a pillar of faith in Islamic doctrine.
With their palms facing the sky in supplication, and many with tears in their eyes, around 2 million people from around the world gathered Thursday in an effort to start anew, erase past sins and beg God for forgiveness and guidance in the peak day of the hajj pilgrimage.
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.
Two million Muslims from across the globe are converging on Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, a religious duty and for some pilgrims the journey of a lifetime.
UAE reacts furiously to Qatar’s restoring diplomatic relations with Iran; As Hajj approaches, Iran and Qatar remain in dispute with Saudi Arabia
Qatar on Monday denied it had banned Saudi Arabian flights from landing in the emirate to transport Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, after an accusation by authorities in Riyadh.
TEL AVIV — The crisis between Qatar and Gulf nations led by Saudi Arabia deteriorated further in the last few days due to Saudi reports that Qatar is appealing to the international community for internationalized access to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia for the season of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca and other holy places, considered a requirement in the lives of all Muslims.
TEL AVIV – The World Council of Churches (WCC) officially endorsed the Palestinian “campaign for Jerusalem,” saying that Israel’s recent move installing additional security measures at the Temple Mount following a terror attack there was a “corrosive act in the midst of an already-fragile peace.”
TEL AVIV – Israel is working to persuade Saudi Arabia to allow direct flights from Tel Aviv to Mecca for Israeli Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage, building on the same flight route taken by President Donald Trump on his trip to the region in May.
The United States, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel have recently been conducting secret negotiations to coordinate the first flight of Palestinian pilgrims from Ben Gurion airport to Saudi Arabia, with a short layover on the way, probably in Jordan.
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.
Iran said on Sunday there had been progress in talks with Saudi Arabia on allowing citizens of the Islamic republic to join this year’s hajj pilgrimage, despite some remaining issues.
Iran has denied receiving any invitation from Saudi Arabia for talks on the hajj, after a row between the arch-foes saw its pilgrims stay at home last year.
A Facebook post thought to be ridiculing one of Islam’s holiest sites prompted a mob of over 100 Muslim protesters to loot at least 15 temples and hundreds of Hindu homes in the Muslim-majority nation of Bangladesh, a local Hindu community leader told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents in Yemen, the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at Mecca on Thursday, but the coalition was able to bring it down about 40 miles short of the Muslim holy city.
Yemeni rebels have launched one of their longest-range strikes against Saudi Arabia, firing a ballistic missile that was shot down near the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi-led coalition fighting them said Friday.
A young Saudi woman was arrested after police were notified she was driving a car in Mecca. The woman, together with two male passengers, was handed over to the vice squad after intoxicating substances were found in the car. The
The Middle East Media Research Institute brings us the latest fiery rant from Jamaican Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, who claims infidels are putting cancer into fake “zamzam” sacred water and selling it to Muslims.
An Islamic activist was arrested at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport late on Sunday as she returned from Mecca to her home in Jaffa, a district of Tel Aviv.
Over 15,000 Muslims gathered in the parking lot of Angel Stadium on Monday morning to celebrate Eid al-Adha (the “Sacrifice Feast”), the second of two major Islamic holidays that occurs during the time of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca is underway and in preparation for the religiously sensitive time, Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry released a warning to nurses working in hospitals near holy sites, meant to protect the holiness of the ceremonies and of course, not to arouse the sexual urges of the pilgrims.
The government of Iran has assembled thousands in the capital, Tehran, to protest Saudi Arabia over a stampede that killed thousands at last year’s hajj pilgrimage. While Iranian media claim the protests were against the Sunni leaders of Riyadh and Bahrain,
Contents: Two million Muslims — but no Iranians — begin the Hajj pilgrimage on Friday; Saudi Arabia makes a dangerous accusation – that Iranians are ‘not Muslims’; Obama warns China not to ignore the Hague tribunal ruling on South China Sea
Saudi Arabia has begun issuing hajj pilgrims with identification bracelets one year after a stampede killed around 2,300 people.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has issued yet another tirade against Saudi Arabia’s control of the holiest site in Islam, Mecca, now claiming that America has “blood” on its hands over a stampede at last year’s hajj pilgrimage that killed thousands.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi authorities of “bigoted extremism” late Tuesday in an increasingly bitter war of words over Iran’s exclusion from this year’s hajj pilgrimage.