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America Targets Terrorism: Influence of 9-11 Felt in Mecca
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
(12:00 AM)
By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press Writer

Roadblocks have sprung up on all roads leading to Mecca, checking for hajj permits of Saudi residents, passports for pilgrims who arrived from abroad and illegal residents. Local news reports say scores of arrests have been made.

MECCA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- AP
About 2 million Muslim pilgrims massed in their holiest city Tuesday to reaffirm their faith after a tumultuous year that has raised fears Islam is being demonized after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Calls to prayer echoed over the city at sunset, followed by an eerie silence as hundreds of thousands of worshippers from around the world bent to offer whispered prayers around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, in Mecca's Grand Mosque.

The silences -- alternating with the deep voice of the cleric reciting from the Koran, Islam's holy book -- brought a sense of peace and order to Mecca, a sleepy city that has been transformed in a matter of days into a teeming metropolis for the annual hajj, or pilgrimage.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim is required to perform it at least once in a lifetime if he or she can afford it.

This year's hajj is taking place at a time when many of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims believe their faith, born in Mecca 14 centuries ago, is the target of a hate campaign by the West following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
(More: The San Antonio Express-News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan