Gold rush in Mecca; voice the Grand Mufti; environmental impacts; hajj fashion
Greetings from Saudi Arabia, where this week's Divine Dispatches comes from. I'm sitting in a Ministry of Culture and Information compound on the King Abdul Aziz Road, overlooking Jamarat watching the staff lay the floor for lunch. It will probably be mutton with rice. That's what they serve most days, although yesterday it was hammour with rice and small bowls of freedom fries, a combination that sent torrents of excitement through the press corps. As a treat, the person with the best comment below the line wins a special pilgrims prize – a random hajj gift.
✤ Al Arabiya reports on a gold rush during the hajj season, saying it represents the busiest season of the year for merchants in Mecca, in spite of high prices. According to the paper spot gold was bid at $1,365.95 an ounce on Monday, against $1,366.35 late in New York on Friday. Last November levels were around $1,100. Abdullah al-Maliki, a gold trader opposite the Grand Mosque, told the paper: "Despite the increase in the price of gold every year, we thought sales would decrease, but there are increases in sales with the increase of pilgrims, and there are good purchases, thank God." No worries, mate, it's what he's there for.
✤ From the roof of our Arafat compound, in fact pretty much everywhere in Arafat on Monday, you could hear the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, delivering the hajj sermon in Namira Mosque. Dawn (it's a Pakistani newspaper, not a person) carries this report on how the religious leader denounced terrorism and urged Muslims not to be drawn into reciprocal acts of violence. He may well have been thinking the a war of words that played out last week, when Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said he could not rule out the possibility of a sabotage attempt by al-Qaida.
But al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said it was against targeting the religious gathering. "We assure our Islamic nation that we are against any criminal action aimed at the pilgrims," it said in an online statement. Good to know even AQAP has limits. The grand mufti also said: "Islam will remain strong in the face of the vicious campaign that is attacking it. Muslims, the dearest thing you have is your religion and your belief. Be proud of your religion; don't ever be ashamed of identifying our religion." The first bit of his speech – the anti-terror line – was reportedly widely. The second bit, not so much. If I get a full copy of the sermon I will post it on here. He has also said that birthday parties are only for infidels and that it is OK for girls as young as 10 to wed.
✤ Every hajj you'll read about people weeping with joy, praying through the night, emerging spiritually renewed and revitalised and achieving a sense of peace and harmony most of us will never know. But the path to Mecca never runs smoothly. The tragic deaths of 10 Nigerians has already soured this hajj. In other incidents, hundreds of would-be pilgrims were stranded in Ghana, five south-east Asians injured in a traffic accident and Pakistanis up in arms over poor facilities in their tents. There have also been seven open heart surgeries performed on pilgrims.
✤ Elsewhere, the Arab News says that an entire village in Cameroon converted to Islam following the Saudi king's intervention in a bid to separate conjoined twins. There have also been several babies born on the hajj – do they get the key to Mecca? I'm meeting the governor of Mecca tomorrow so I'll ask him. I would have met the king except there was only one invitation per nationality and the Islam Channel got it for the UK. If I'm linking a lot to Arab News by the way it's because they have a heavy presence on the hajj and nothing slips through their net.
✤ The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil has done a neat report on the environmental impact of the hajj while Sohail Rahman is blogging about his experiences for al-Jazeera. Pamela Geller, who I'm pretty sure is not here, writes that Muslims were chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel" while stoning the devil. Someone who is here is Barack Obama's grandmother who is performing the Hajj for the second time as a guest of the Saudi monarch.
✤ On Twitter I've been asked for fashion hajj tips so here goes – chenille bedsheets for the men are bulky and look like you're wearing a bedspread, which you are, so try to get plain cotton cloth instead. It looks nicer, with cleaner lines and dries faster if you need to rinse it for any reason. Ladies, show your hairline at your peril! I have fallen foul of this – revealing it quite by accident – and the occasional flash of collarbone. If you're a first timer get an elasticated hijab – it will stay put and cover your tempting neck, ears and hair at all times. A big pair of designer sunnies will add a touch of glamour as well as disguising the lack of make-up. I don't know if you can wear sunnies on the hajj. I'm sure there's a fatwa on it somewhere.