Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
All Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at some point in their lives if they are able to fund it. That's 1.6 billion people. As the country where Mecca is located, Saudi Arabia has an enormous responsibility, and gains enormous prestige, as the host of the pilgrimage. The Hajj cannot be cancelled.
There are limits and quotas on the number of people allowed to attend, by nationality (approx. 0.1% of the population of each Muslim country in any given year). And those quotas anger and frustrate Muslims around the world. Why wouldn't it? They have a spiritual obligation to attend if they can. Even then, about 3.2 million people per year arrive in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. The Grand Mosque in Mecca has been expand to have a capacity of 2.2 million people. That's 36x the number of people who were in attendance at the opening ceremonies to the Summer Olympics in London.
It's basically like hosting an event five times the size of the summer Olympics in a small city every single year.
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I don't blame Saudi Arabia for having a difficult time trying to cope with all of these people on a yearly basis.
I have a problem with religious people thinking their "spiritual obligation" outweighs the safety of their fellow man. Clearly the quotas are not strict enough.
Curious, does the muslim religion have some sort of governing body similar to the Vatican? Someone that could address the logistical and safety issues regarding this pilgrimage and maybe "alter" the requirements?