Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WITH A DEATH toll of more than 700, Thursday’s stampede at the hajj pilgrimage outside of Mecca was one of the world’s deadliest for more than a century.
The worst also occurred during the hajj, in 1990, and was followed by another incident involving Muslim pilgrims, in Baghdad, in 2005.
Hajj tragedies
On July 2, 1990, 1,426 mostly Asian Muslim pilgrims perished, trampled underfoot and asphyxiated in a tunnel at Mina, after a ventilation system failure.
The accident came on the last day of the annual pilgrimage and the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice marked by the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims.
The pilgrims were in Mina, just to the east of Mecca, for the ritual stoning of the devil, as was the case on Thursday. Several tunnels had been drilled to facilitate the movement of the faithful between the shrines.
According to the authorities, panic set in inside a tunnel when seven pilgrims fell from a bridge.
Witnesses said a power outage paralysed the two powerful ventilators of the tunnel, which was one kilometre (3,281 feet) long and 20 metres (yards) wide. Some 5,000 people were in the tunnel, which was only designed to hold 1,000, according to the media.
Pilgrims die in Baghdad
It was also during a pilgrimage that on August 31, 2005 a stampede on the Al-Aimmah bridge in Baghdad killed up to 1,000 pilgrims.
In Iraq’s bloodiest day since the 2003 US-led invasion, hundreds of women, children and elderly people were trampled underfoot or jumped to their deaths from a bridge over the Tigris River.
The stampede erupted after the Kadhimiyah mosque – burial place of the 8th century Imam Musa Kazim – came under mortar fire during the annual ceremony to celebrate his birth.
The attack sparked rumours that a suicide bomber was among the vast crowd of pilgrims who had gathered to attend the ceremony.
Tsar’s coronation marred
On May 30, 1896, a stampede at Khodynka field in Moscow during celebrations for the coronation of Tsar Nicolas II of Russia left 1,389 dead.
Originally published: 8.15am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I don’t see the problem here. I support same sex marriage 100% but it it a free country. This means we all have freedom of speech. There are no wrong opinions. It’s the priest’s choice and rights to express his point of view. He doesn’t have to conform to main stream ideology.
@Tommy Chen: it is the opinion of most people that this priest is an asshat of the highest order.
@Tommy Chen:
Yes, it is a free country etc where people can hold whatever opinions they wish, however, from someone in his position within a community to be inciting such hatred so openly, it only takes one radical Christian lunatic to interpret that message in a particular way and then next we’ll have beatings and killings of homosexuals because “it’s a sin”.
As if the Catholic Church is so sacrosanct in the first place too. It’s been a hotbed of sin over the years with child abuse, mother and baby laundries, illegal adoption, beatings etc . So not only could the priests particular ideologies be interpreted in a particular way, it’s also incredibly hypocritical for him to be condemning something while representing an organisation that has done so much worse.
@Darren Anthony Corr: there’s people in every religion and every profession that did evil thongs to children. This man is entitled to his opinion. Who said anything about hatred only you .
@Jim Casey: things
@Tommy Chen:
Free speech is fine, using your position/platform to express your opinions unbeknownst to your audience….not so ok, which is why so many walked out of the church.
@Jim Casey:
The article in question is relating to comments made by a catholic priest, my comment was in relation to that. Whataboutery isn’t going to work here, it also adds nothing concrete just backs up my point really.
Nice try though.
@Tommy Chen: I agree.
I don’t agree with him at all, but I applaud his conviction to stand over his outdated views, despite the backlash he has brought on himself.
Sinful?
It’s the 21st century. No one believes that stuff any more.
He was only reading out the rule book, problem is they don’t want you quoting the rule book back to them cause it’s bad for PR
I don’t really understand the outrage. Those are the teachings of the Catholic Church. He’s a Catholic priest. If people don’t agree with those ridiculous, outdated beliefs they shouldn’t be part of a club that requires them to hold those beliefs
@Derek Walsh Ⓥ: spreading hate he was , even the powers that be in the Catholic Church are pulling away from that kinda behaviour
Why all the outrage. It’s not the Catholic Church’s job to agree with the prevailing ideology. Their job is to preach Catholic teachings and beliefs. That’s what this priest was doing. That’s what I would want to hear if I went to mass.
@Declan Dalton: the church should practice what they are preaching!!!
Not!!
The same guy put his support behind a sexual offender instead of the victim, He’s a hateful little man and shouldn’t be given the limelight he’s getting to spew his nonsense.
Odd, so many people disgusted with his comments, but still keep signing their kids up to the club. He is only reciting the long held views of his club, especially the leaders of it.
Yes, it is hateful, but you are happy enough to follow them so your kids can get a lovely day out whilst parents flash the largesse.
Hypocrisy on all sides.
He can take his backwards views and opinions and do one. People like that are a relic of the past and that’s where they belong in the past.
It used to be married couples who were told everything they did between the sheets was a sin. Now it’s same sex couples getting the “it’s a sin” treatment. I wish they’d just leave consenting adults to do as they please and concentrate their wrath on the real evil of sexual predators who prey on innocent children and shout about how sinful that is from the pulpit.
Selective reading and selective interpretation of the bible is the seed for disturbing individuals.
If the church has rules I think that’s fair enough and you either decide to follow the rules or not! But I think that it’s hilarious that the church can’t respect their own rules! Same-sex couples can’t marry in a church but heterosexual couples who are not allowed to have sex before marriage can get married in a church and even bring along their kids as proof that they did indeed have sex and have them even participate in the ceremony as flower girls etc. The church are a joke.
No mention of child sex abuse being a sin.
You’d be worried by those lads who think they have a direct line…..
He should be sacked from his job…
A belief system is something you can be almost be garanteed to be wrong about, unless it is backed up with an evidence based system.
Is sex with oneself a sin ?
Only because its been reported do I know about the comments and I care less about it if I never heard about it
have your say