fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush
minor?!?
Kind of yes. Since Hajj brings 2-3 million people together, it was a minor crowd crush.
The major crowd crushes have resulted in deaths in double or even triple digits (in 2015).
Saudi Government has largely streamlined the movement of pilgrims, so I don’t know where this crowd crush happened.
That said, I totally blame the government for inadequate response to the heat wave. While the article shares that the authorities distributed water and ice cream, it didn’t help much in peak times. When I (a pilgrim) was returning on Jun 17, the crowd was barely moving and I could not reach the water at all since it was on the right end of the road, and I was on left, from where it’s borderline impossible to move to the right without putting your life at risk.
Plus, I don’t know who got the ice creams as I didn’t see any.
Good lord. How horrific.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“All of them [the Egyptians] died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding that the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.
Earlier on Tuesday, Egypt’s foreign ministry said Cairo was collaborating with Saudi authorities on search operations for Egyptians who had gone missing during the hajj.
The pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate breakdown, according to a Saudi study published last month that said temperatures in the area where rituals are performed were rising 0.4C (0.72F) each decade.
AFP journalists in Mina, outside Mecca, on Monday saw pilgrims pouring bottles of water over their heads as volunteers handed out cold drinks and fast-melting chocolate ice-cream to help them keep cool.
Saudi officials had advised pilgrims to use umbrellas, drink plenty of water and avoid exposure to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.
Hosting the hajj is a source of prestige for the Saudi royal family, and King Salman’s title includes “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in the cities of Mecca and Medina.
The original article contains 644 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This will probably get removed but…
have you...
Tried praying harder?
550 people just died and your only response is to mock their religion.
What kind of person are you? Have you no decency?
If this had been an outdoor rock concert, would you start mocking their taste in music?
People at a rock concert wouldn’t feel obliged to stay and would be able to leave without guilt or fear.
I don’t understand why they didn’t have anything set up to accommodate the Pilgrims to cool them off or maybe restrict access to a limited number of people to allow them to be spaced out enough to have some breathing room.
I know if a tragic event, but god damn religion is stupid. All religions. Even those that encourage monks to starve themselves or suffer for enlightenment. As an atheist this all makes no fucking sense.
and would be able to leave without guilt or fear.
People can leave hajj at any time and come back later. They won’t miss anything.
It’s not an endurance event.
Even those that encourage monks to starve themselves
What religion do you think you’re talking about here? Catholic monks don’t starve themselves, and neither do Buddhist monks.
I don’t think there’s any religion that’s like that. I feel like you’re attacking a straw man.
Edit: Are you getting confused with the story of how the Buddha, pre-enlightenment, tried starving himself, and then taught that monks shouldn’t do that?
As an atheist this all makes no fucking sense.
Maybe it makes no sense because you just made it up.
Absolutely not, 0 decency. Us anti atheists are repugnet creatures not worthy of heaven…
TIL rock music is homophobic, oppresses women, has some pretty barbaric rules and validates murdering anyone else not listening to rock music.
lemmings for allah
Islamaphobia is also disgusting. Like racism or antisemitism. Don’t be a creep
The problem here is climate change, not Islam.
Edit: This will be happening in more and more places as time goes by.
Hopefully “pilgrimage” doesn’t mean flying from all corners of the world spraying carbon everywhere, for the sake a 2000 year old fictional story ?
And if it is, let’s hope it’s not to a country built on the extraction of fossil fuels and builds indoor snow domes in the desert ?
for the sake a 2000 year old fictional story
Islam is 1400 years old. You’re thinking of Christianity.
In case your crude attempt at trolling inspires anyone else to wonder how much the climate in Arabia actually has changed, here’s a link: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5207/