Hajj 1430 (2009 in the Western calendar)

Grand Mosque, Mecca (Wikipedia commons)

This is being written in the midst of the 1430 (2009) Hajj season, and perhaps as many as two million pilgrims have descended upon Mecca to fulfill their obligations as Muslims. The current Hajj presents the Saudi government with a number of severe challenges including medical, political, and meteorological ones.

In an earlier posting fears of a H1N1 (swine flu) problem were noted, and those fears have not proven unfounded. A number of pilgrims have arrived with signs of the disease, and there have been several deaths of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia attributed to it. Yesterday UPI.com (one of the many news sources now available online) posted a brief note on the problem H1N1 flu scare keeps hajj pilgrims away suggesting that local pilgrims, ones from the kingdom and nearby countries, are avoiding the pilgrimage this year. A number of postings on various other news sources covering the event say more or less that same thing. And, as always, the Saudi authorities are vigilant when screening Hajiis from Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for signs of polio, a disease still endemic in parts of those countries though it has been largely eliminated in most other parts of the world. Like H1N1, polio is an infectious disease passed easily when many people are in close contact. Those diseases could spread rapidly in the crowded conditions of Mecca during Hajj.

Added comment 29 November "Saudi Official: 5 dead from Swine Flu at Hajj."

The political threat is more diffuse and even more difficult to patrol. A news report on BBC America last evening indicated that ten thousand or more Saudi police and military forces are on hand in the pilgrimage zone to protect the area, its shrines and the pilgrims. Political threats include long standing ones--the conflict between Sunni and Shiite groups and the potential activities of al qaeda. Those threats now also include an insurgency breeding on the doorstep of Saudia Arabia in the northern frontier zone of Yemen, an insurgency that could easily cross the border in that area of rugged terrain and perhaps spread as far as the edges of Mecca.

Finally the weather has proven a problem. While Mecca is in the Saudi desert and normally gets only 130 mm (less than 5 inches) of rain annually, when the occasional rains come they are often in the form of torrential downpours. Heavy rain can flood wadis and gullies, quickly making normally bone dry roads impassable and dangerous. In the past several days western Saudi Arabia has received torrential downpours and a number of people have died as a consequence.

Added comment 29 November: Islam's Hajj: Rain and Fear of Swine Flu; Death Toll From Floods in Saudi Reaches 106.

All of those challenges are amplified by the simple task of meeting the basic needs of a huge influx of people, many of them far from home. Yesterday CNN's website feature Inside the Middle East published a good overview of problems related to the Hajj this year, with H1N1 as the most critical single issue in its view. The BBC has a good, continually updated, feed on Hajj conditions at various places on its extensive website.