This performative documentary restores the historical record of the ‘great king’ of Mali
On Friday, the kingdom announced a renewed lockdown in the city of Jeddah, gateway to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, to counter the jump in cases
Mosque access fight has opened up the debate about gender for South African Muslims
Pilgrims in Mecca denounce atrocities by Isis as ‘a virus’ threatening the world, but also express concerns about the US-led air war against them.
A great many local Muslims will not be allowed to perform a Mecca pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as South Africa will likely exceed its attendance quota.
No image available
/ 18 December 2009
Muslim pilgrims who undertake the prescribed fifth pillar of Islam are faced with a contemporary experience that has long abandoned the camel.
No image available
/ 29 September 2009
Standing behind a wall of pearls and rosaries in a shop in Mecca, souvenir dealer Mohammad Hamdi says business has never been so bad.
Thousands of Muslims circled the holy Kaaba stone on Tuesday before bidding farewell to Mecca while others stoned pillars representing Satan in nearby Mina as the hajj pilgrimage drew to a close. In the last ritual of the annual pilgrimage, tens of thousands of faithful walked seven times around the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque complex in Mecca and then knelt to pray.
No image available
/ 16 January 2006
Was it God’s will or human error that killed 439 in two separate incidents during this year’s annual pilgrimage to Mecca? That’s the question which many pilgrims were pondering as they bid the holy city farewell. The hajj began on January 8, three days after the collapse of an aging hostel in the heart of Mecca killed 76 people, and ended on Thursday with 363 pilgrims dead in a stampede.
Survivors of the collapse of a hostel in the holy city of Mecca recounted on Friday the horror of the latest tragedy to strike the hajj as the death toll rose to 76. ”I heard one big noise,” said Tayeb Mizasha (70), a Frenchman of Algerian origin, as he lay in bed in Mecca’s King Faisal hospital with broken ribs and a bruised face.
Twenty-three Muslim pilgrims were killed and scores more wounded in the Saudi holy city of Mecca on Thursday when a building collapsed in the latest tragedy to hit the annual hajj, a witness said. Rescue teams were scrambled to search for survivors after the collapse, which happened in the heart of the city.
No image available
/ 17 January 2005
Dressed in a seamless white robe, Algerian pilgrim Tayyeb Bouguettaya circled the Kaaba several times on Monday with a prayer booklet in one hand and a cellphone in the other, reciting religious mantras in unison with his wife a continent away. Modern technology has changed the way Muslims experience the hajj pilgrimage.
No image available
/ 30 January 2004
Five Saudi security agents were killed in a shoot-out with suspected terrorists in the Saudi capital as nearly two-million Muslims from around the world began the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca amid heightened security after a year of terror attacks in the kingdom.