The
top cleric in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest cities, warned against
using the annual Hajj pilgrimage to promote political slogans and sectarian
hatred.
The
Muslim pilgrimage isn’t a time for “raising slogans” and shouldn’t be
“exploited for purposes of political agendas,” Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin
Abdullah al-Sheikh was cited as saying today by the official Saudi Press
Agency. The pilgrimage is a “great occasion for unity and solidarity between
Muslims,” he said.
Tensions
between predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran have
escalated this year. On Oct 11, the US accused Iran of plotting to assassinate
Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador in Washington. A week earlier, Saudi
Arabia accused an unidentified foreign country, believed to be Iran, of seeking
to undermine the stability of the kingdom after an attack on security forces in
the Shiite village of Awwamiya.
About
1.8 million people from abroad made the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca last
year, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Saudi Arabia issued 94,000 visas for
Iranian pilgrims this year, the Riyadh-based SPA reported, citing Mohammed
al-Kilabi, the Saudi ambassador to Iran.
Saudi
Arabia’s royal family maintains a strict version of Sunni Islam. It prohibits the
public observance of other religions and limits the practice of other branches
of Islam, including Shiism.
Saudi
religious leaders have in the past blamed Iran for encouraging violence by
Shiite minority groups in the region. In May, al-Sheikh warned of “schemes
planned for our region with the aim of stirring” sectarian differences. Sheikh
Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, an adviser to King Abdullah’s Royal Court, said
Iranian sectarianism was the cause of regional tension.
Saudi
Arabia sent troops into Bahrain in March to crush a mainly Shiite-led uprising
after accusing Iran of interfering in the affairs of the Persian Gulf country,
which is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Iran denies the allegation and accuses
Sunni rulers in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia of discriminating against Shiites.
In
February 2009, Saudi police arrested several Shiite pilgrims after clashes.
Saudi security forces fought with Iranian pilgrims holding a rally during the
Hajj in 1987, resulting in the deaths of 402 people, 275 of them Iranians.
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