Stampede at Saudi hajj kills 717
How could it have happened again?
Anguished relatives and stunned pilgrims demanded answers after at least 717 people were killed and 805 injured Thursday in a crushing crowd outside the holy city of Mecca, according to Saudi Arabia’s civil defense directorate.
The stampede occurred in Mina, close to Mecca, during the last major rite of the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, according to the official Saudi press agency, citing civil defense officials. Photos and video from the scene showed white-clad corpses laid out on orange stretchers — rows and rows of them.
Reading a bit further, it seems that there is going to be some sectarian backlash.
A little infighting could be on the schedule.
Funny how they come to that conclusion, it's not enough that several hundred people are already dead?
Because I am not interested in their religion or their politics other than wanting them to stay in their own sand box, I am not going to bother trying to understand it.
Thousands had gathered Thursday for the rite of “stoning the devil,” in which the faithful hurl pebbles at a wall symbolizing Satan.
Then again, I was raised Catholic and they have their own rituals from antiquity that I don't quite get either since I am not a fan of Organized Religion to begin with.
Like so much else that occurs in the Persian Gulf region, the fatal stampede took on overtones of sectarian rivalry. Shiite Muslim Iran suggested that Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia bore responsibility for the deaths, including those of at least 89 Iranian pilgrims, Iran’s state news agency reported. That led to some angry online exchanges between critics and defenders of Saudi Arabia.Just what the Doctor ordered, a little more fuel to the internecine feud.
These people have been killing each other for centuries over this shit.
Maybe they should make this a twice a year event.
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