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Muslims perform the stoning ritual after the recent modernization
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MINA,
January 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim pilgrims
Friday, January 21, continued the symbolic stoning of the devil, as
the ritual is so far free of stampedes that marred previous years.
Last
year, 250 people died at Mina's
Jamarat
Bridge, the site where this year more than two million pilgrims stood to
perform the sacred rite.
The
Saudi authorities, after the incident, revamped the Jamarat area, where
pilgrims throw the symbolic pebbles, adding more exits and deploying
thousands of security forces to control the crowd, according to
Reuters.
They
also replaced the three pillars the pilgrims stone with thick walls
providing a larger target to prevent the crush that normally occurs at
the site.
"Praise
be to God, this has been excellent," said Saudi pilgrim Khaled
Al-Najashi, speaking at the spot where the devil is said to have
appeared to Prophet Abraham.
Abraham
threw
stones at Satan when the latter tried to dissuade him from
sacrificing his son at God's command.
`Eid
Al-Adha begins the same day as Hajj, with the sacrificing of sheep,
goats and cows to commemorate Abraham's willingness to the sacrifice.
Facilities
After
last year's incident, the Saudi government spent 28 million dollars on
a modernization program to make it easier for pilgrims to throw their
pebbles and to install extra cameras installed to allow the flow to be
monitored.
"Thank
God, there were no accidents. We have only had isolated cases of
fatigue on the way to the jamarat," Colonel Mohammed Abdullah
al-Qarni, who heads the civil defense’s operational unit, told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Everything
went according to plan," he said.
In
the unit, based in Mina, dozens of screens transmit the stoning ritual
live from the cameras, while a civil defense helicopter overhead
transmits aerial pictures.
The
roads on both side of the Jamarat bridge have been greatly widened for
the smooth movement of pilgrims.
All
pilgrims have been instructed not to carry their luggage onto the
Jamarat bridge.
In
the past, pilgrims left their baggage on the way to the stoning,
creating dangerous obstacles on the way of other pilgrims.
"The
improvements have had a major role" in the prevention of
accidents this year, Qarni said.
Devil
"Bush"
Noticeably,
although the stoning is a purely religious rite, many pilgrims said
they were targeting U.S. President George W. Bush and other world
leaders seen as oppressing Muslims.
Many
pilgrims said they were thinking of Bush and his allies while they
were hurling pebbles at the Jamarat site, according to a Reuters
reporter on the spot.
"Yes,
the devil is Bush and that other one from
Israel
-- (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon. And there's (British Prime Minister) Blair too," Egyptian
Tia'amah Mohammed.
"We
throw the stones so we can vent our anger at them."
Many
Muslims revile Bush for his perceived bias towards
Israel
and the
US
occupation of
Iraq
with no justifiable reason.
Anger
at
Sharon
also runs deep over
Israel
's long-standing occupation of Palestinian land and
Jerusalem
, the site of one of Islam's holiest sites.
"During
the stoning I couldn't help thinking of Bush, Blair and Sharon," said British Muslim activist Yvonne Ridley.
Graffiti
denouncing Bush, whom many Muslims revile for his perceived bias
towards
Israel
and occupation of Iraq, had daubed the stone pillars.
The
new walls have so far remained clean. But that did not prevent some
pilgrims from recalling Bush and his allies as they pelted the
"devil".
Pilgrims,
in white robes meant to eradicate differences in race and class
between Muslims, have poured into the Jamarat area since Thursday, the
first day of the stoning ritual and the start of `Eid al-Adha as well.
After
the end of the stoning ritual, the pilgrims can then return to Makkah
to end the formal rites of hajj by performing a final Tawaf
(circumambulation of the Ka`bah) and Sa`i (walking seven times between
the small hills named Safa and Marwah, re-enacting the Qur’anic
story of Hagar’s uphill search for water and food.)
The
Hajj is seen as a golden opportunity to seek forgiveness of sins
accumulated throughout life.
Every
able-bodied adult Muslim who can physically and financially afford the
trip must perform hajj, one of the “five pillars” of Islam, once
in their lifetime.
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