Muslims On Annual Pilgrimage Iranians Use The Occasion To Assail U.S. And Israel

Under a merciless sun, more than 2 million Muslims prayed Saturday on Mount Arafat outside Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, where the prophet Mohammed gave his last sermon nearly 14 centuries ago.

The gathering, on the most sacred day of the Islamic calendar, marks the height of the pilgrimage, or hajj, a duty every ablebodied Muslim must perform at least once in a lifetime if possible.

The rite proceeded without incident, although Iran’s state-run radio said tens of thousands of Iranian and other pilgrims defied repeated Saudi warnings and held a rally on the Arafat plains to demonstrate their hatred for the United States and Israel.

By evening, Saudi Arabia had made no mention of the “disavowal of infidels” rally, which passed without incident.

“Thanks be to God, there were no incidents worth mentioning among the pilgrims,” General Ahmed Mohammed Bilal, Saudi Arabia’s security chief, told the official Saudi Press Agency.

Tehran radio broadcast parts of the rally, in which pilgrims chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Arabic and Farsi. They also chanted slogans in support of Iran’s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

It quoted the head of the Iranian pilgrims, Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, as saying: “We are gathered here today to show our hatred and anger…at the Great Satan, America.”

State-run Saudi television earlier showed the pilgrims, clad in seamless white garments, chanting in unison: “I have answered your call, oh Lord. There is no God but you.”

Sheik Abdulaziz Al al-Sheik told them that Islam, followed by 1 billion people worldwide, protected human rights and that the punishments it prescribed provided for a healthy society.

He cited the amputation of limbs for theft, the stoning to death of adulterers and death for murderers.

“The sharia (laws) of Islam came to achieve human rights and protect them…we want to protect society from moral degeneration,” he said.

A record 192 people were publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia last year for crimes such as drug smuggling, murder, rape and armed robbery.

Saudi Arabia goes to great lengths to ensure a trouble-free hajj. It invests millions of dollars every year to build new roads, provide comfortable accommodations and increase the capacity of the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina.

But at least 2,000 pilgrims have lost their lives in stampedes, fires and clashes during the hajj in the past 10 years.

Saudi authorities say the hajj should be a purely religious affair and have warned the 70,000 Iranians performing the hajj this year against staging political rallies.