{"id":11070,"date":"2013-10-14T10:29:22","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T10:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11070"},"modified":"2013-10-14T10:29:22","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T10:29:22","slug":"3-million-muslim-pilgrims-in-saudi-arabia-for-climax-of-haj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11070","title":{"rendered":"3 million Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia for climax of Haj"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11071\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11071\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11071\" alt=\"The Kabba in Mecca\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11071\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kabba in Mecca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some 3 million Muslim pilgrims ascended Mount Arafat near Mecca in Saudi Arabia at the climax of the annual haj.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorities deployed around 100,000 security personnel to secure the pilgrims, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The granite hill is the place where the Muslim prophet Mohammed is said to have delivered his last sermon around 14 centuries ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pilgrims wear seamless white robes to symbolize equality during the haj, one of the five pillars of Islam. It culminates in the feast of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Saudi officials on Sunday said 1.3 million pilgrims arrived from abroad &#8211; 21 per cent less than last year. No reason was given for the decline.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pilgrimage comes as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been slowly spreading in parts of the region.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At least 136 cases, including 58 deaths, have been reported since last month. Sporadic outbreaks have been limited to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The risk of the spread of illness or stampedes in Saudi Arabia is present during the haj.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2006, nearly 350 pilgrims were killed in a stampede.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 1987, more than 400 people were killed when police attempted to break up a political rally. Saudi authorities have since warned pilgrims to avoid political activities during the pilgrimage. &#8211; dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some 3 million Muslim pilgrims ascended Mount Arafat near Mecca in Saudi Arabia at the climax of the annual haj. Authorities deployed around 100,000 security personnel to secure the pilgrims, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The granite hill is the place where the Muslim prophet Mohammed is said to have delivered his last sermon &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=11070\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;3 million Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia for climax of Haj&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[422,3],"tags":[6943,914,6940,6941,6942],"class_list":["post-11070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-news","tag-haj","tag-islam","tag-kabba","tag-mecca","tag-muslim-pilgrims"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/kabba_mecca.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11072,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11070\/revisions\/11072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}