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As the death toll rises, debate is raging over whether bad organization, weather or gate-crashing pilgrims are to blame for more than 1,000 reported deaths in Saudi Arabia during the annual Hajj religious gathering. Arabic-language social media has been flooded this week with shocking images from Saudi Arabia. The pictures and videos show people who were undertaking their once-in-a-lifetime Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca collapsed on the side of the road or slumped in wheelchairs, apparently close to death or dead. They are dressed in traditional pilgrim's white, their faces covered with cloths. In several pictures, corpses appear to have been left where they presumably collapsed. What started as a rumour on social media was confirmed as the weeklong Hajj pilgrimage ended: Hundreds of pilgrims have died in Saudi Arabia, evidently due to extremely high temperatures and lack of shelter or water. Temperatures in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, rose to 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit) during the course of the annual event, which started late last week. Around 1.8 million Muslims from all over the world had been expected in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. One of the world's largest religious gatherings, the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Every Muslim who is able to is supposed to perform it at least once in their lifetime. My point of view is that when people realized how hot it was and how intense the sun was, they should have avoided going up to the top, a pilgrimage manager explained, adding that many pilgrims don't realize you can simply stand on a lower slope to perform the ritual. Pilgrims need to be better educated and more aware," he continued. "The state absolutely has obligations and bears responsibility. But the behaviour of some [of the pilgrims] indicated a lack of awareness. And by that, I mean awareness regarding how to perform Hajj rituals. For example, the [Saudi] state is not able to place sunshades on the top of Mount Arafat." While the recriminations and the desperate pleas for help continue, one thing is certain: The Hajj is only going to get hotter.
But climate change? No, the Hajj is never on the same date in the year. I.e. the Hajj in 2000 was from Mar 13, 2000 – Sat, Mar 18, and the Hajj in 2005 was from Tue, Jan 18, 2005 – Sun, Jan 23. It differs and so does the weather, say temperature, in particular months. So it's to blame on the weather and no climate change. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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6/23/2024
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