Having completed many of the Haj rituals, the pilgrims are a bit more focused on worldly concerns. News is not readily available at Mina, however, and the pilgrims are hungry for it. The moment they discover that someone is a journalist, he is mobbed and bombarded with questions. The pilgrims are especially interested in Sunday’s sad events. How many died and what nationalities were they? Was there anyone from my locality? These are the kinds of questions they ask.
* * *
Outside consulate headquarters in Mina, the names of the dead and injured have been posted. Crowds of pilgrims are gathered round these lists, searching for the names of relatives and friends. The Indian and Pakistani governments have been the most organized in this regard. Some other governments are still struggling to determine if any of their citizens are among the casualties. Some governments have no official representatives in Mina and are attempting to handle the requests for information from their embassies in Riyadh. This is less than ideal.
* * *
Huge numbers of local newspapers are being sold to pilgrims. Arab News is being shared on the streets of Mina with several pilgrims grouped around each copy. Al-Eqtisadiah, Urdu News, Malayalam News and Al-Watan are also popular. One particular vendor had mobile newspaper racks which he set up in one area for 30 minutes and then move to another. Abu Tahir from Bangladesh stood in front of his newspaper racks and called out the reports about the tragedy in Malayalam and Urdu. This attracted many pilgrims to come and buy a newspaper from him.
* * *
Numerous Jeddah residents have come to Mina in search of missing pilgrims. After the stampede at the Jamrat, people tried to find family and friends who are performing the Haj. Due to difficulties with the telephone network, many phones are not working properly. In desperation, people called their friends and relatives who live in Jeddah and asked them to go to Mina to search for the missing pilgrims. The Jeddah residents never imagined what kind of task was before them. There are still over a million people in the tents at Mina so looking for one missing pilgrim is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The searchers are going from hospital to consular mission to campsites looking for pilgrims. It is frustrating to say the least. An Egyptian, Ahmed Nasser, who works for Abbar and Zainy in Jeddah, was one of those who found himself faced with this task. He received a telephone call from Egypt about his parents’ neighbors who had come for Haj and have not been heard from for the past few days. Ahmed came to Mina early in the morning trying to locate the couple but by 2 in the afternoon he still had no information on their whereabouts. He did not, however, give up hope of finding them. “I must keep trying to find them as it will make so many people happy if they are safe,” he said. “As a Jeddah resident I must be grateful that God is taking my help in this way. It is a blessing to be earning your livelihood in Jeddah so close to Makkah. If I can bring any feeling of relief to all the people waiting at home for news of these pilgrims, then I will have completed my mission.”
* * *
With the many communications options available, it seems strange that people are being forced to search in such a painstaking manner for any pilgrim but many of the pilgrims simply are not aware of how to use modern technologies. For example, many elderly pilgrims don’t understand how prepaid telephone cards work. Explaining to them how to scratch off the strip on the back of the card and then enter the dial up number into a telephone followed by the card number and the telephone number is too long and complicated a process for them to grasp. Plus the numbers on the cards are tiny and hard to see. Many pilgrims, elderly and otherwise, just want to be directed to the regular call cabins where help is available.
* * *
Today the atmosphere in Mina is very colorful. People are wearing their best attire. When it comes to bright colors, the Nigerians can’t be outdone. With their huge flowing jalabiyas, they are traveling throughout the tent city in rainbow-hued groups. On the opposite side of the color palette are the Indonesian women. They are mostly dressed in pastels. Lavender is especially popular. When they walk together, they look like bouquets of flowers fluttering down the streets in the cool breeze.
* * *
The pilgrims’ behavior has completely changed today. On Sunday, women held themselves back from the stoning ritual, especially after the tragedy. Today the female pilgrims were out in force and at times there seemed to be many more women than men in the Jamrat area. The crowd was still huge today but everyone seemed to be better behaved. The results of aggressive behavior were made clear yesterday. As people are out of their ihram, they are more relaxed and there is little to do today so there is no rush. Pilgrims could be seen greeting each other, even kissing and shaking hands within the Jamrat area.
* * *
But the aftermath of Sunday’s tragedy still must be dealt with. It seems that many among the dead were residents of the Kingdom. Consequently, they were not wearing identity bracelets like pilgrims from abroad. Even for local pilgrims, a Haj permit is required. Why can’t the authorities make a bar-coded identity bracelet part of the package when the Haj permit is issued? The bracelet could be a pass to all the holy sites and, in the case of disaster, would provide immediate information on the pilgrim. Now local pilgrims carry only the Haj permit and their iqama with them when they come to Mina. These items might be left in the pilgrim’s tent during the stoning ritual or even dropped in a panic. Something must be done to facilitate the identification process and so minimize the misery for all.
* * *
Another problem is caused by pilgrims who continue to insist on personally slaughtering sacrificial animals. Of course the Islamic Development Bank has installed state-of-the-art slaughterhouses where millions of animals are mercifully killed. Unfortunately some pilgrims still persist in the belief that they will receive greater blessing if they sacrifice the animal personally. Thousands buy sheep at the market on the outskirts of Mina. Then they take the animals into the desert and sacrifice them. Without being needlessly graphic, it can be said that this creates a bloody mess. Men are waiting nearby with pickup trucks and they take the slaughtered animals away. It is impossible to know whether this meat is going to charity or to a nearby restaurant.
