MINA, 8 January 2006 — Long before the first group of pilgrims began moving into the tent city of Mina yesterday, there was the caravan of foreign and local mediapersons. They were everywhere — near the Jamrat bridge talking to the first arrivals, on bridges taking pictures and sending images to their viewers of the picturesque Mina valley. Some of the mediapersons spoke to the illegal pilgrims who had made themselves comfortable under the many bridges that crisscross the valley. Others were listening to comments from local traders who had set up shop in the tent city.
Among the number of young and enthusiastic Saudi journalists and photographers were Turki Al-Saheel, Muhammad Ali, Khadr Al-Zahrani, Anwar Al-Baghdadi, Sultan Al-Obthany, Hadi Al-Fakeeh, Ayed bin Marzouk, Shaker Abu Talib, Abdul Qader Muhammad, Fahd Al-Bogamy and Ali Al-Miqbili.
“The moment we got here, we were on the job because we have deadlines to meet,” said Sultan Al-Obthany, who works for Asharq Al-Awsat. “Our arrival in the city was a bit delayed because many roads leading to our camp had been closed by the traffic police,” Sultan explained.
Twenty-five-year-old Sultan is a graduate of Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz University. He is dashing, streetsmart and enjoys speaking English. “My family comes from Sharourah in the south. I took to journalism because I love this profession,” he told Arab News. “There is no monotony in this profession. You can always expect the unexpected. The thrill of seeing your byline in black and white in next day’s newspaper is something that a reader will never understand.”
“Covering the Haj is something special for all journalists. It is no doubt the highlight of our careers. I think the most important thing is not the story itself but the tortuous process that one has to go through to get it into print. For instance, the first story from Mina was sent at 7.30 p.m. It could have been much earlier but it took us six long hours to get to our destination. Nobody thought it would take us that long to get here. For the reader, however, all this delay will have no meaning,” he said. “He will judge us on the merit of the story, not the distance that we traveled to get it.”
Sultan covered the Haj last year as well. “The story that earned me a lot of accolades was about a Saudi cook who was busy serving dishes to the pilgrims in Mina. Some 30 years ago, his father used to take him to the Holy Mosque for schooling. In those days, the Holy Mosque was the best and the only place for teaching in Makkah. But this guy would slip out of the Grand Mosque and spend time in a nearby restaurant. He eventually learned how to cook and took that up as a profession,” said Sultan. “I got a lot of e-mails and calls from our readers about that story,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Sultan said last year that the Indonesian pilgrims were very upset with journalists. They said, “We are trying to forget the tsunami and everybody is reminding us of the horrible tragedy.” In the end, according to Sultan, “We eventually stopped asking any pilgrim about the tsunami but the pressure from the news editors at headquarters was to get hold of pilgrims from tsunami-affected regions and to put their quotes in the stories.”
Sultan said pilgrims coming from different regions have various peculiarities. “The Syrians will always talk about politics. But every time they whisper something, they look around to see if anyone is eavesdropping. The Palestinians were talking only about elections that were taking place after Yasser Arafat’s death. They were very vocal. The Americans were the most religious people. They never talk politics. They are confident and are always looking around in order to learn more about the history of Islam. Like Sultan, the other Saudis are pushing the boundaries in their coverage of the Haj and in doing so, they are coming up with a number of unusual and fascinating stories.
