RFE/RL
- 26 February 2002
Nearly
2 million Muslims descended on Saudi Arabia in February for
the hajj, the pilgrimage required at least once in the lifetime
of all Islamic faithful able to make the trip. Muslim clergy
customarily use the occasion for sermons on established themes,
including calls for Islamic unity. RFE/RL correspondent Don
Hill talks to Muslim scholars and commentators to find out
how the U.S.-declared war on terrorism affected this year's
hajj.
From
one perspective, the hajj -- the holy pilgrimage that devout
Muslims make to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if they
can -- never changes.
Pilgrims
journey by land, sea, and air from all over the world in the
season of the hajj. They approach Mecca in Saudi Arabia devoutly
and in prescribed stages. The 2002 hajj ended on 24 February.
On
21 February, Saudi Arabia's top cleric, Sheik Abdul Aziz Al-Sheik,
called for Islamic unity in a sermon delivered from Mount
Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammad preached his last sermon
almost 14 centuries ago. That, too, was traditional.
However,
there were also differences this year. The terrorist attacks
of 11 September hung silently in the air over Mecca, as did
memories of the U.S.-led attacks on the Al-Qaeda terror network
and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Sheik
Al-Sheik said in his sermon that Islam requires protecting
the weak and unarmed and is incompatible with terrorism. He
also made evident that what one group calls terrorism, another
may call self-defense. Referring to Israel, he said this: "Fighting the oppressed Muslims in Palestine is terrorism
and repression."
An
estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide are Muslims. Many like
to remind followers and outsiders alike that Islamic holy
scripture, the Koran, describes Islam as a faith of peace.
But the Koran also has passages commanding Muslims to meet
force with force whenever Islam is challenged, even to the
point of a jihad, or holy struggle.
Abdul
Jalali, an author on Islamic history and practices, holds
a doctorate in history from the University of Kabul. He is
one of those who focuses on the peaceful face of Islam. He
says that Muslims who murder, engage in terrorism or commit
assaults on innocent bystanders do not understand their own
religion.
"Jihad
is a holy war against those who are aggressive and unjust,
enemies of peaceful nations or countries, no matter where
the nations and what are their beliefs and thoughts. But terrorism
is an act of criminals and those who do not know the [correct]
Islamic behavior toward mankind," Jalali says.
Jalali
says that an emphasis on Islamic unity is traditional in sermons
on the occasion of the hajj: "Generally, the rules
of hajj and the spirit which follows the completion of its
performance are the same, like every year, when pilgrims specially
gather at the Mount of Arafat in Mecca and pray for Islamic
unity and prosperity of all Muslims worldwide."
Ancient
religions, however, operate in a world that is changing.
In
past years, hajj pilgrims often devoted 10 or more years of
their lives journeying from far Russia, sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia to Saudi Arabia. Many of this year's 1.5 million
foreigners arrived by bus and even chartered airliner. Pilgrims
used to come by camel caravan, bearing their own provisions,
including tents, ready to face immense difficulties to make
the hajj. This year, Saudi religious authorities provided
uncounted numbers of fireproof tents for shelter, after a
1997 fire killed almost 350 pilgrims. Vendors supplied necessary,
and even luxury, foodstuffs.
Travelers
with the means equipped their tents with satellite television,
computers, fax, and Internet connections. Mobile telephones
were ubiquitous.
As
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims performed the symbolic stoning
of the devil on 24 February in the last hours of the hajj,
casting pebbles at stone pillars, helicopters circled overhead.
Police and traffic control officers directed and managed the
crowds. Security forces and riot police stood by in personnel
carriers and buses. No major incidents were reported.
Saudi
authorities announced long before the hajj began that anti-U.S.
demonstrations were forbidden. But as they often have before,
Iranians held a ceremony within their camp to condemn the
United States and Israel.
Saudi
Arabia is a U.S. ally maintaining warm relations with the
United States. Still, many Westerners continue to recall that
Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is a native of Saudi
Arabia, although exiled and in official disrepute there, and
that 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers in the 11 September
attacks were Saudi citizens.
In
the same way, there is a body of opinion in the Islamic world
that U.S.-led forces killed indiscriminately in their attacks
on Afghanistan. And that the U.S. is culpable in what many
Muslims consider Israeli aggression against Palestinians in
the Mideast.
Fahmi
Howaydi is a Cairo-based columnist for six Arab newspapers.
When asked how the atmosphere of the hajj differed this year,
he told RFE/RL that the bombing deaths of Afghan civilians
since 7 October now overshadow the deaths from the attacks
in New York and Washington on 11 September:
"On
11 of September, the people [of the world] were shocked by
the killing of about 3,000 Americans. But you can imagine
Muslims' feelings when they know that 20,000 civilians were
killed in Afghanistan after 7 October [when the U.S.-led campaign
in Afghanistan began]," Howaydi says.
Not
all of those who died in the World Trade Center attack were
Americans. In the indiscriminate way of terror attacks, the
victims were random, including many Muslims. Also, such is
the chaos in Afghanistan that nobody knows how many Taliban,
Al-Qaeda fighters, and noncombatants died in the bombing there.
Western critics of civilian deaths from the U.S.-led assaults
in Afghanistan condemn what the U.S. military has labeled
unavoidable "collateral damage," but the highest
nonpartisan estimates of civilian bombing deaths do not reach
4,000, and are certainly nowhere near 20,000.
Even
so, there is little doubt that Howaydi speaks for a substantial
body of opinion in the Arab world when he says some Muslims
consider themselves under attack: "People here are
thinking about things in a different way. Now they are seeing
the attacks on terrorism as if the Americans and some Western
politicians are attacking Islam itself."
U.S.
authorities, including President George W. Bush, have said
from the outset that the targets of the "war on terrorism" are criminal terrorists, not Muslims. Islamic leaders in the
United States say that 5.7 million Muslims live there peacefully.
The
Egyptian journalist, however, also reiterates the view of
some Arabs that the U.S. support of Israel is by nature inimical
to Islam: "The people cannot imagine that the Americans
are leading the war against terrorism and at the same time
they are supporting and justifying the terrorism committed
by the Israelis against the Palestinians. So this is a double
standard."
Don
Hill
