I don't know what can be said of things such as
Death Toll Rises to 345 in Hajj Stampede.
Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj tripped over luggage Thursday, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed despite Saudi attempts to prevent stampedes that have plagued the annual event...
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said 345 people were killed. More than 1,000 people were injured, said Dr. Abbasi with the Saudi Red Crescent...
... the annual hajj pilgrimage and has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244. Seven of the past 17 yearly pilgrimages have seen deadly incidents at al-Jamarat.
The latest crush came despite Saudi attempts to ease the flow of traffic around al-Jamarat. This year's hajj was marred by the Jan. 5 collapse of a building being used as a pilgrims' hotel that killed 76 people in Mecca...
The pillars are located on a large pedestrian bridge, the width of an eight-lane highway over the desert plain of Mina outside the holy city of Mecca. Four ramps lead up the bridge to give pilgrims access to the site, and the stampede occurred at the base of one ramp...
The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj move from pillar to pillar to throw their stones, then exit.
Saudi authorities replaced the small round pillars with short walls to allow more people to throw their stones without jostling for position. The walls extend down through the bridge and protrude underneath, so pilgrims below can also carry out the stoning without going above.
Officials also recently widened the bridge, built extra ramps and increased the time pilgrims can carry out the rite - which on the second and final days traditionally takes place from midday until sunset.
Shiite Muslim clerics have issued religious edicts allowing pilgrims to start the ritual in the morning, and many Shiites from Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon and Pakistan took advantage to go early in the day.
``This is much better. We are now done with the stoning before the crowd gets larger,'' an Iranian pilgrim, Azghar Meshadi, said hours before the stampede.
But Saudi Arabia's Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pilgrims to stick to the midday rule...
39 comments:
Kinda sheds a little light on the nature of the enemy, doesn't it--cynical bastids taking advantage of these poor desert folks and their incredible fervor.
and it happens almost every year--that's plenty sobering--if you're assuming that, say, MAD doctrine is reliable vs Iran.
"cynical bastids taking advantage of these poor desert folks and their incredible fervor"
---
So we can expect Buddy Larsen to be excoriated here when he pokes fun of my incredible pineapple fueled fevor?
I'm in favor of the Mad Doctrine.
Air Drop 40 million magazines across Iran.
So, you CAN distill pineapples?
"What, me explode?"
But seriously, if you want to drop magazines over Iran, make'em 9mm, with accompanying delivery tools.
Sher-nuf way to blunt the police state--give pre-victims a way to guard their doors.
Yeh, that Saddam, a true believer in individual liberty--just check the record. A reg'lar George Washington, he was.
...747 trip to Haj--must be an experience for the Haj-level of modernism. Some of the old roman ruins are still the last plumbing to've existed in north African rural villages. Put 'em on a 747, put us on a spaceship from Alpha Centauri.
I am reading Robert Spencer's book the Politically Incorrect History of Islam and the Crusades and it is scarey.
Mark, what was the point to that?
Skookumchuk,
Damn!
I thought it was going to be about a group that cleaned out the 747s used to take Pineapples to the Hitchin Hut.
"The trick was to not challenge them in any way or give them anything hard to do"
1. See the tall building?
2. See the big plane?
3. Plane go Boom!
Yes, that was a Red Queen that could 'believe a thousand things before breakfast'.
remarking on the 21st century and the 14th crashing head-on is no more an indictment of the 14th than it is the 21st, Marko. But, good of you to try making a point.
Peter, he's been down on you ever since you linked that college-kid website. I don't why, he couldn't possibly be ashamed of his political activities.
Well, maybe we could hook him up with that Canadian lady y'all had up on 'Peers thread, Karen Homulka, or something?
Chip in and send 'em on a cruise to Aruba?
How did you get into russian plywood, anyway, Mark?
Drop-ship, or inventory?
Blog administrator must not be *that* worried about 'looking bad'.
hey mark, go get your own blog. free country.
Try toning down the unpleasantness, Mark. It creates snark-back, and soon the whole thread is degenerating. I think that is the message being sent.
Who precisely doesn't believe in evolution, and how do you know?
Throwing stones at a fundie sect that is spawning world war is pretty human, I think.
What do you want to do, stick your head in the sand and wait for a city-kill, or just blow them all off the face of the earth, or maybe try to help them evolve?
Pick one of the three, there aren't any other choices.
Mark-world: two types, Marxists and Appalachian snake-handlers. Nothing in between.
I'm in favor of the Mad Doctrine.
Air Drop 40 million magazines across Iran.
And Victoria's Secret catalogues.
LOL! signed, "the degenerate"
That seems to have been Saddam's plan. 25 million AK-47s and enough ammo to support an insurgency for 18 years.
However, Mark, he doesn't seem to have counted on the "insurgency" splitting into two groups and shooting each other.
2 cups pineapple
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups vodka
1/2 cup sugar syrup
Some ingredients, skook. bring 'em home from the store, drink the vodka, throw that other sh*t in the garbage.
Well, at the risk of reanimating the swamp creature, I must say, I thought Sistani was on our side. But, maybe that puts him against the swamp-creature. hell, i don't know.
mark talking about a hate fest..what a hoot.
What possible difference does it make whether or not someone is an ally or an enemy in the Global War on Terror, when there are fundamental issues like Evolution burning on the front burner of the burner front?
I say we rent a phone booth and stage a battle between the Evolution Fundies and the Non-Evolution Fundies.
Skook,
Did your friend's tales include cleaning up the remains of small cooking fires? I've heard that stewardesses have become rather upset when the weary hadji's put on the kettle in tourist class. Why should they be concerned about a little alcohol stove?
Or was it the foot prints on the toilet seats?
Quick, hide the Bible, it's the Evolutionary Guard!
missing the toilet compartment all together
No. no. nononono.
But not on any cross-central-Texas flights, please.
the strains on brains is mainly on 'explains'.
thankew, thankew, please, enough applesause.
That's a HARD rain, gonna fall.
you mean the 12 1/2 cups of Vodka.
(ah, sh*t, that was shposh ta be TWO an' a half)
damn, there goes my right hand.
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