MINA, 12 January 2006 — This is a Haj devoid of high anxiety. At Haj the idea that “no news is good news” is certainly true. This Haj has gone so smoothly in every way that everyone has begun to optimistically look forward to an early departure from Mina. All we need is for the rain to hold off for 24 hours. For a second day at Mina the weather continued to be excellent. The sun has been hiding behind the clouds since Tuesday and a cool breeze is constantly blowing across the valley. Now is the time in Mina for pilgrims to take souvenir photos, buy trinkets and catch up on the latest news.
After our story yesterday on illegal pilgrims an official of the Passport Department, who is himself performing Haj, told us that the illegal pilgrims are not necessarily the Kingdom’s expatriate workers, but more often are illegal overstayers. These overstayers of many nationalities come into the country legally on Umrah visas. This is a deception as they have every intention of performing Haj as well and simply stay on. They live in squalor in Jeddah, doing menial jobs until Haj time. Then they perform the pilgrimage and after that they wait for the government to deport them. In some cases they voluntarily hand themselves over to the Passport Department. After Haj their numbers are so high that sometimes the Passport Department personnel have no choice but to send them away, asking them to return at a later date. The overstayers know about a specific bridge in Jeddah where they can wait for the immigration authorities and police to come and arrest them so they can be deported home. According to the Passport Department official, these overstayers are a nuisance but form a minority compared to the legal pilgrims with permits.
Year after year we have always been discussing how organized the Indonesians are. Almost everyone regards the pilgrims from this nation as role models. There are frequent comments on how well trained Indonesian pilgrims are. They stay within their designated groups, careful in their movements and avoiding trouble. However, Tuesday night at the Jamrat it was quite a surprise to see a large group of Indonesian women, several hundred in fact, occupying the space close to the Jamrat. They were just sitting and blocking the path for other oncoming pilgrims. Indonesian groups always moved in a way which does not impede the movement of others. We could not see any guide with them, so perhaps there was an emergency that resulted in this behavior.
Tuesday night the whole Jamrat area was chaotic. With the Indonesians sitting on the left side of the Jamrat area and the illegal squatters on the right, the area was quite congested. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims turned out to perform the stoning ritual late in the evening. Due to the tragedies of previous years, numerous religious leaders have given permission for the stoning to take place into the night in order to reduce the crush of the morning hours. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no coordination concerning which groups would be stoning at what hours. This led to a lull in the stoning in the afternoon, with the numbers then picking up again after sunset. Fortunately, crowd control was tight and the stoning passed without incident.
Yesterday, we bumped into a pilgrim from India, Amjad Ali from Jharkhand. Soon after he landed in Madinah on his way to perform Haj, he stopped off at a local clothing shop and bought a set of Saudi clothes, including thobe and headdress. Ali is a politician and he has a special affinity for Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. “I am very impressed by him and his services to his nation and to the nation of Islam,” said Ali. “We can never forget the Saudi contribution to the people of all the countries especially Indian Muslims.”
On Tuesday, after being released from ihram, he donned the Saudi clothes he had purchased weeks ago. He felt that this was a way of showing respect toward the Saudi people and their king. He stated, “The Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, was an Arab and therefore Arabs hold a special place in our hearts.” Ali is tall and thin and has a beard similar to that of King Abdullah. He looked quite handsome in the Saudi attire. Outside his tent he was observed by some of the Saudi guides and Arab journalists and became an instant celebrity. He was taken to be introduced to some of the Haj officials. His good intentions have given him an unexpected “15 minutes” of fame.
One of the more interesting sights on Tuesday night was a group of about 150-200 Qatari women coming back from stoning the Jamrat. These women pilgrims in their traditional black Qatari abayas were surrounded by a human chain of Qatari men protecting them from the crowds. The effect was similar to a huge school of black fish, surrounded by a white barrier, swimming for their home waters.
The pilgrims went into Haj as one sea of white but now their national and ethnic differences are appearing. The different areas of Mina are divided by regions. Africans, Indians, Indonesians and Europeans are all grouped in specific areas, for example. Walking through the tents, the aroma of different foods wafts through the air and one can instantly determine which nationalities are housed in that area. Most people are now wearing their native dresses, so it is amusing to see how the fashions change from one area to the next even though the tents remain basically the same. Many pilgrims are seated in any small public space near their tents selling small goods from their native lands. The nature of these items change too as one moves through the different ethnic areas. The term “global village” is often used to describe the world today. Mina truly is a global village.
