Religion is starting to be damaged by the Palestinian situation. Saudi Arabia, the place where the sacred pilgrimage, known as the hajj, have once again organised a large group of willing pilgrims to make the journey to Mecca. There were 4,000 from the West Bank and 2,200 from Gaza.
The journey started 2 weeks ago but now trouble has struck. Hamas, the Islamist militant group, running Gaza have demanded that they could submit their own list of Gazans. The Saudis refused, so Hamas decided to assemble 8 checkpoints on the Egyptian border route, all pilgrims are being stopped. The ones that bravely continued onwards were beaten by the police with sticks, witnesses claim. 5 of the tourism companies that helped organise the hajj have been jailed by Hamas.
This is a terrible new event in this power struggle. When religion gets involved people may be pushed to conflict. The fact that these Muslim pilgrims are not allowed to perform one of the most important duties of a Muslim is not good news at all.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
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If I recall correctly, Muslims are required to make the journey only once. There's always next year.
But you're right. Things can get nasty when it comes to sacred/holy ground. Serbians had to put up a fight for Kosovo, the 'Land of One-thousand Churches', as they call it. Prince Lazar battled the Turks there in 1389, shortly after attending a service where he received the sacrament of Holy Communion. And Kosovo is of lesser importance in the Orthodox Christian world than Mecca is for the Muslim world. Mount Athos (Greek island) is the closest thing to a Mecca for East Orthodox Christians, but a pilgrimage to Athos is not required of Christians. Serbians do kiss the icons of Saint Lazar, however. He did die in the Battle of Kosovo. That's at least part of the reason why it is sacred ground to them. That and the fact that the Kosovo town of Pec was once the seat of the Serbian Church for 5 centuries (until 1766, I believe). I have seen the Serbs kiss Lazar's icon at the Serbian church in Bournville.
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