Saudi Arabia politicizing Muslim Hajj pilgrimage: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with

Abdul Alim Musa, the Imam of Masjid al-Islam from Washington, and Jihad Mouracadeh, a political analyst from Beirut, have attended Press TV's show 'The Debate' for a discussion of Saudi rulers' mismanagement of Hajj pilgrimage.

Abdul Alim Musa warned against the politicization of the Hajj by authorities in Riyadh, saying Saudi officials are letting their political views to govern every aspect of the Muslim pilgrimage.

Musa noted that politics cannot be separated from the Hajj management as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, because of the Al Saud rulers' historical criminal behavior in killing Muslims. He recalled that Saudi security forces killed hundreds of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca in 1987.

Pointing to another case of politicization of the Hajj, he stated that the Saudi kingdom has banned Muslims of certain countries from the Hajj, because of their different political viewpoints.

The Imam suggested that Saudi Arabia be investigated. He also proposed that a committee of Ulema or religious personalities from various countries be formed to manage the pilgrimage. "Because Saudi Arabia has shown no interest in managing the Hajj on behalf of Islam and the Muslims.”

Also speaking on Press TV’s program ‘The Debate’, Jihad Mouracadeh ruled out any political dealings with regard to the Mina stampede and said, “Iran is perfectly right to make a request for a proper inquiry” into the catastrophic crush in Mina.

He proposed that any such inquiry into the incident be conducted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, adding Saudi Arabia has to pay compensation to the victims, should it be found guilty of negligence in managing the pilgrimage.

Saudi Arabia claims that nearly 770 people were killed in the Mina incident; however, Iran, which had the greatest number of deaths among foreign nationals, has put the death toll at more than 7,000. At least 460 Iranian pilgrims were among the victims.

Iran has called for the formation of a fact-finding committee to investigate last year’s human crush.

The tragedy came days after a massive construction crane collapsed onto the Grand Mosque, killing more than 100 people, among them 11 Iranian pilgrims.

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