Hajj

Fatal incidents during the Hajj

The Hajj brings together huge numbers of pilgrims. With such a vast number of people in one place at one time, failures in crowd control and other organisational errors can lead to disaster. Some of the recent tragedies have included the following (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3450333.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1204816.stm

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http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11664.html

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http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/war_in_lebanon.htm

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http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/newsletter2004/saudi-relations-interest-01-10.html)

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• On February 1, 2004 251 Muslim pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a stampede during the stoning of the devil ritual.
• In 1998, at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death.
• On April 15, 1997 343 pilgrims were killed and 1,500 injured in a tent fire.
• In 1994 a stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the stoning of the devil ritual.
• On July 2, 1990 a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy sites led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims.
• On July 9, 1989 two bombs exploded, killing one pilgrim and wounding a further 16. Saudi authorities beheaded 16 Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims for the bombings after originally blaming Iranian terrorists.
• On July 31, 1987 Iranian pilgrims rioted, causing the deaths of over 400 people.
• On November 20, 1979 a group of approximately 200 militant Muslims occupied Mecca's Grand Mosque. They were driven out by French commandos (allowed into the city under these special circumstances despite their being non-Muslims) after bloody fighting that left 250 people dead and 600 wounded.

Another potential cause of disaster arises naturally from the Hajj: movement and contact of pilgrims on such a large scale increases the risk of epidemics.

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The perceived failure to prevent these events, or to react appropriately to them, has led to strong criticism of the Saudi Arabian authorities by Muslims and onlookers outside Islam alike. It should be noted that such events are common enough at mass gatherings.

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