Maddenation

The Hajj

Once again, a human stampede in Saudi Arabia has killed hundred of Muslims on their pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca. I will try to avoid being too disrespectful here, although the very fact that I’m commenting on it implies a certain amount of disrespect. While loss of life in the crowds visiting Mecca seems almost routine, I can’t recall ever hearing about such an incident at any other religious shrine anywhere else in the world. Apparently, the stampede occurred because of the rush of people attempting to perform a ritual “stoning” of the Devil before nightfall at a site outside Mecca.

This type of ritual is certainly not much different from or more unusual than the rituals performed in other religions. However, it is important to keep them in perspective. They are all rituals; that is, activities that are intended to aid the believer in renouncing evil and enhancing their religious intents. What is important is not the ritual in and of itself, but the inner conversion and transformation that is promoted in the heart of the believer. This distinction appears not to be understood by many fundamentalists, especially Islamic fundamentalists.

Off the top or my head, here are a few impressions I’ve gotten through the years about Islam. If you steal, they cut off your hand. If you are a woman, you cannot move about outside your house unless in the company of a man (husband?), and then you must be covered head to foot by a burqa. If a woman commits adultery, she must be stoned. Men pray 5 times a day, on prayer rugs, facing Mecca. Infidels (non-Muslims) are to be killed if they do not accept Islam. (There must be some exceptions to this directive, as the vast majority of Muslims are not out there continuously killing people.) Salman Rusdtie was sentenced to death by the Islamic clerics for writing The Satanic Verses. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists are fond of blowing themselves up in public in order to kill infidels (and less fervent Muslims) and achieve heavenly rewards from Allah that apparently include several hundred virgins doing their bidding.

I could go on, and if I tried harder, could come up with better sounding aspects of Islam, but you get the point. I don’t understand it. I am certainly well aware that many Christian fundamentalists have twisted their religious teachings to justify reprehensible behavior. The Catholic church, in particular, has a checkered history fraught with decidedly un-Christlike behavior. Nonetheless, it’s basic teachings are about love and the golden rule, and it’s leaders consistently preach against war and killing, and in favor of personal freedom and woman’s rights (priesthood notwithstanding). The muslim community appears to be stuck with a medieval mentality that promotes the kind of “magical” thinking that ascribes far too much importance to physical activities such as stoning satan, and too little value to such virtues as tolerance and forgiveness.

But I digress. My inability to understand the religious fervor that results in stampeding deaths doesn’t diminish the tragedy. I suppose it’s better to die on your way to stone the Devil than it is to die on you way to a rock concert, or while watching a soccer game, but they all seem so unnecessary. Please, everyone, try to be at peace.

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