Generally, it is Day Three of Haj when journalists wake up to the wailing of sirens. The awful noise would signal that a tragedy, most likely a stampede at the Jamrat Bridge, was in progress. We would throw off our blankets and rush like madmen to the Jamrat Bridge, to be confronted by chaos. The rest of the day would be spent attempting to list the names of the injured and dead. Yesterday there were no sirens.
Instead, it was the persistent, annoying ringing and beeping of our mobile phones that tore us from slumber. Saddam Hussein had been executed and news organizations all over the world wanted to know what the pilgrims thought of that event. Within minutes of the first calls, the media room at Mina was in a pandemonium with dozens of simultaneous loud, outraged conversations under way. There is no television in the press room, but some people were able to quickly access online sources through their wireless devices and we soon knew every detail of the execution.
Early on, most pilgrims were unaware that Saddam had been executed.
Actually, the pilgrims were exhausted. The night spent at Muzdalifah had been extremely trying. The temperature was about 10 degrees and when the wind blew, conditions became unbearable for everyone there.
Dul Hijjah 10 (the third day of the pilgrimage) is always a very hectic day for the pilgrims. After spending the night in Muzdalifah, they have to stone the Great Satan, then there is the sacrifice and next, they must take care of all the necessary steps to be released from ihram — their state of consecration. Finally, many move on to the Holy Haram to perform tawaf. So most do not have the energy to be concerned with anything happening out in the larger world. Many people came to know about Saddam’s hanging through text messages from their relatives. Texting is a very popular form of communication at the Haj and people are kept updated with the situation at home through text messages from relatives and friends. Pilgrims are frequently seen stopping to read incoming messages on their mobile phones, oblivious to the fact that they are blocking pathways.
Once we were informed about Saddam’s execution, we called around to discover the location of the camp for the Iraqi pilgrims. Mina is divided into camps for various national groups so that adequate meal and guide services can be provided. The Iraqi camp was distant to ours, but the authorities were not allowing the use of motorbikes off the main streets, so we had no choice but to walk most of the way there. Once we arrived, the Iraqi pilgrims were far from enthusiastic to see journalists. Few of the Iraqi pilgrims are willing to speak about politics during Haj, let alone have their names mentioned in the press.
Most of the Iraqi pilgrims were quite exhausted as they were among the many who had been unable to leave Muzdalifah the night before.
Thousands of well-off pilgrims had chosen to escape from the cold weather at Muzdalifah as they were able to afford to sacrifice a sheep as the penalty for cutting this ritual short. Those pilgrims picked up the 70 pebbles needed for the stoning, found their transport and returned to Mina. We watched hundreds of thousands of others who were unwilling to step away from the difficulties of Haj, spend the night at Muzdalifah, pacing back and forth for hours in small groups huddled under blankets. By the time those pilgrims reached Mina in the morning, they were nearly ill. The night had been extremely hard on them.
Thanks be to Allah, yesterday there was good news to report from Mina.
The flow of pilgrims across the Jamrat Bridge was very smooth. The bridge design is very functional. Throughout the day, the pilgrims moved to and from the bridge in a very orderly fashion. The authorities are fully in control of the situation on the Jamrat Bridge and that is the best news we could have wished for.
It seems too, that in coming years, the infrastructure projects to improve the orderly movement of the pilgrims will enable more pleasant, safer pilgrimages. Muhammad Ishaq, an electrical engineer working for the Saudi Binladin Group, was on the King Abdul Aziz Bridge filming Road No. 15 — one of the major arteries leading to the Jamrat area. Ishaq works on the Jamrat Bridge Project. He explained that the project has just completed its first phase and there are two more phases to come over the next two years. Each year the services and infrastructure available to the pilgrims will improve significantly.
It is unusual to see an individual filming at the pilgrimage. Cameras in public places during the Haj are usually frowned upon as photography is considered by some to be an invasion of people’s privacy during the religious rituals. However, Ishaq had special permission to film in order to provide data to the Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs. The ministry is attempting to analyze the reasons for bottlenecks on the routes that pilgrims use within the tent city.
In recent years, many efforts have been undertaken to prevent congestion. One idea implemented recently was dividing the pilgrim camps into smaller blocks of tents and providing passages at several points for entry to each camp. This keeps the pilgrims from converging on just a few entry/exit routes for each camp as in the past. Reducing congestion in the city is a difficult problem to solve as there are so many variables, from time of day to weather. Let us hope that with better infrastructure and improved pilgrim education, managing the movement of pilgrims will be done in a proactive rather than reactive manner, and that reports of tragedies at Haj will be a thing of the past.
