Hajj pligrimage crush

If you're that hurt by an off the cuff 'get off you're high horse' then apologies. But it's far from aggressive.

Yes maybe I am mocking 'Allah's will' but what is exactly what these people will brush it off as. Can't you see how ludicrous that is? So then nothing will be done to prevent this in future. No changes will be made. All because it's 'Allah's will'.

This was a peaceful event yet 700+ people died. That highlights the lack of empathy and value of life these people have. It's not an inconsiderate number..

People then expect Europe to throw open their arms to these type of characters.

I recon more people use London Underground each day, Mecca and London are probably of similar sizes...

I think it's simple actually - people are dying to the stupidity and incompetence of the Saudi government.

The corporate media won't overly criticise the Saudi government since we have a special partnership with them, i.e. we sell them loads of guns, bombs and aircraft.
 
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Yes maybe I am mocking 'Allah's will' but what is exactly what these people will brush it off as. Can't you see how ludicrous that is? So then nothing will be done to prevent this in future. No changes will be made. All because it's 'Allah's will'.

They made appropriate changes from the last stampede in 2006. Someone linked it earlier
 
They made appropriate changes from the last stampede in 2006. Someone linked it earlier

they made some changes... clearly not enough

it isn't like 2006 was an isolated incident either, there have been repeated incidents of mass deaths at the same event - probelm is this is a country run by people with medieval beliefs
 
I can't believe these death toll figures I'm seeing! Holy crap!
The organisation really really needs to be looked at. Restricted numbers? Scholars look in to whether there are alternatives, can people come at different times for example?
 
Am I the only one really shocked at the number of casualties? 700+ people is a huge loss of life. Even worse, nearly 1500 dies in 1990 in a stampede. Those are crazy numbers.

Nope, shocked here... just even more shocked at some people's defensive attitudes when Islam is criticised... this is GD, I should be use to it by now.
 
If you're that hurt by an off the cuff 'get off you're high horse' then apologies. But it's far from aggressive.

Apology accepted but I wasn't offended, I was however not expecting to be told to get off my high horse - which I wasn't at all. I'm trying to toe a fine line between letting people discuss the events without it turning into another "lol Islam" or "lol religion" thread which is totally unnecessary in this situation, especially since there have been death of innocent people doing something that shouldn't be dangerous at all.

Yes maybe I am mocking 'Allah's will' but what is exactly what these people will brush it off as. Can't you see how ludicrous that is? So then nothing will be done to prevent this in future. No changes will be made. All because it's 'Allah's will'.

Yes, but you're still trivialising something that doesn't need to be trivialised. I get that you think it's daft and ridiculous, but discuss the matters at hand rather than being derogatory about it.

This was a peaceful event yet 700+ people died. That highlights the lack of empathy and value of life these people have. It's not an inconsiderate number..

I know, it's tragic, awful that people should die doing something which shouldn't be dangerous. I hope that this is a stark reminder than despite the improvements they made, it is not enough and more needs to be done to protect people. People will continue to want to do the pilgrimage - so they need to make sure they facilitate it to make it safe for those that want to do it. No matter how much faith they may or may not have I doubt any of them were expecting to lose their live.

People then expect Europe to throw open their arms to these type of characters.

I don't get the relevance of this?

I recon more people use London Underground each day... not directly comparable but the London Underground manages just fine without hundreds of crushed passengers.

That's because we've spent millions on it, and it has evolved, grown, and isn't centred around one small part of London. And they shut stations during overcrowding, and manage the crowds. Something they haven't done there or not doing well enough.

Either way that number of deaths shouldn't happen for something as relatively low risk as this.

they made some changes... clearly not enough

Agreed.

it isn't like 2006 was an isolated incident either, there have been repeated incidents of mass deaths at the same event - probelm is this is a country run by people with medieval beliefs

I don't think the beliefs are a problem, after all they use cars and computers it's not as if they are a technologically backward civilisation. Perhaps they have somewhat more "traditional" behaviours, and that is part of their culture and they should be able to enjoy it - but irrespective of their beliefs it shouldn't cost the lives of people.

In fact it should be because of their beliefs that they should realise the magnitude of work they need to do to allow people to follow their "medieval beliefs" without being put into danger.

Nope, shocked here... just even more shocked at some people's defensive attitudes when Islam is criticised... this is GD, I should be use to it by now.

Why do you think it is fair to blame a religion when this is to do with the authorities that run the area around Mecca?

I don't mind people criticising the situation, but tarring a religion and a culture is unfair.

I agree entirely this is unacceptable and shows a terribly low value of life, but that's down to poor management and not enough risk mitigation and poor crowd control.
 
I don't think the beliefs are a problem, after all they use cars and computers it's not as if they are a technologically backward civilisation. Perhaps they have somewhat more "traditional" behaviours, and that is part of their culture and they should be able to enjoy it - but irrespective of their beliefs it shouldn't cost the lives of people.

but it is their backwards society, backwards beliefs that are the problem - like you've said they've got access to money, technology

that is the reason why thousands of construction workers die in that part of the world and disasters like this happen - those countries are run by people with backwards beliefs who happen to have access to a lot of money thanks to pure luck
 
but it is their backwards society, backwards beliefs that are the problem - like you've said they've got access to money, technology

that is the reason why thousands of construction workers die in that part of the world and disasters like this happen - those countries are run by people with backwards beliefs who happen to have access to a lot of money thanks to pure luck

I'm not denying they have a long way to go to replicate "our" western standards for some things, and they can achieve this without it affecting the root of their culture, and I hope they do - this sort of tragedy should be scorned and seen as unacceptable loss of life. Any loss of life should be seen as unacceptable.

I'm not disagreeing with you at all. They need to enhance part of their culture to accept that some things must and can change - and it doesn't have to affect some of their more sacred parts of culture.
 
Why do you think it is fair to blame a religion when this is to do with the authorities that run the area around Mecca?

I don't mind people criticising the situation, but tarring a religion and a culture is unfair.

I agree entirely this is unacceptable and shows a terribly low value of life, but that's down to poor management and not enough risk mitigation and poor crowd control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia#Religion_in_society

Islam and Saudi Arabian culture are basically the same thing, it's constitution is based on the Quran and it's citizens are required to be Muslim. Basically their way of thinking and operating is massively influenced by their Religion.

Culture does affect things like this, it's ignorant to pretend that the only thing that separates Western civilisation from events like this is management skills. We handle things like this better because we have a focus on Health and Safety which we've developed over many years, we did this because we have a high value of Human life; that's culturally ingrained and part of the reason we don't also execute people.
 
Of course Islam is intrinsically wound into the Saudi culture, and their values are different, and that should be challenged - but challenged in a sensible way. Such as making them change their value of life which is possible to do. We've done it on the most part, but we still have pockets of care free behaviour towards life (American gun culture for example).

We're a lot less spiritual than a lot of people of the Middle East. This may or may not be a good thing, I don't know, and frankly I don't think this is the right place for this debate. So I agree they are on a different level, and in spite of us being that way we've managed to embrace the sanctity of life, freedom of choice and acceptance - or least working towards it, but we're not perfect either...

I just hope that things improve and they listen to the West and realise we're not trying to erode their culture, but help them live their culture without putting people at risk.
 
Of course Islam is intrinsically wound into the Saudi culture, and their values are different, and that should be challenged - but challenged in a sensible way. Such as making them change their value of life which is possible to do. We've done it on the most part, but we still have pockets of care free behaviour towards life (American gun culture for example).

We're a lot less spiritual than a lot of people of the Middle East. This may or may not be a good thing, I don't know, and frankly I don't think this is the right place for this debate. So I agree they are on a different level, and in spite of us being that way we've managed to embrace the sanctity of life, freedom of choice and acceptance - or least working towards it, but we're not perfect either...

I just hope that things improve and they listen to the West and realise we're not trying to erode their culture, but help them live their culture without putting people at risk.

It would be easier to get Texas to abolish guns, denounce the US Marine Core as evil Satan worshipers and convert their entire population to Atheism than it would to get Saudi Arabia to change their belief system in the slightest, that is no exaggeration
 
Am I the only one really shocked at the number of casualties? 700+ people is a huge loss of life. Even worse, nearly 1500 dies in 1990 in a stampede. Those are crazy numbers.

I pondered the same thing, for that many to die, just how many were stampeding?
How many get caught under foot enough to be physically beaten to death under the weight of other people running over the top of you?
Its a massive number of deaths. One would assume taking a little more than a 'Rowdy bunch of African's'.


I have yet to meet an Arab abroad who could queue. I haven't encountered large numbers of African's abroad, so can't comment, but in my travels through nations with a strong Islamic percentage of populous, when the Arabs visited, they appeared to treat the locals as second class humans, and skipped queues, walked to the front to argue the toss.

It can't help to organise events when you care not for queuing yourself.
Also with the population growing, and people expected to make Hajj once if they can do so, the numbers each year will have to swell.
 
It would be easier to get Texas to abolish guns, denounce the US Marine Core as evil Satan worshipers and convert their entire population to Atheism than it would to get Saudi Arabia to change their belief system in the slightest, that is no exaggeration

Maybe. I've spent a fair bit of time in the Middle East and whilst their culture is different I didn't find it to be to abrasive. I'm sure changes will come, but it's not our place to inflict our beliefs on to them, just like we don't expect Sharia law in the UK/Europe.

As you say though it will take time and it is not an insurmountable shift but neither is it easy.
 
Sad isn't it? Just because it's based around something that a lot of people disagree with or do not understand or do not care about it's fine to poke fun.

Poke fun at the Hillsborough disaster or anything local and you're considered scum and heartless.

People like to be offensive with things regarding religion or things that people don't agree with, rather than doing the human thing and feeling sad for the death of hundreds of people, and suggesting ways to prevent it from happening again.

Criticising the lack of improvement at controlling crowds surrounding the Hajj pilgrimage and the organisation for dealing with it is perfectly justified - criticising religion or the people is not. Criticise the people in charge, criticise the lack of pedestrian control, and people flow - that's what the issue is here.

Let us have some empathy and a bit of compassion please.

Totally agree.
 
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