'Mecca Journeys'

Murat Cem Menguc, Hyperallergic, Documenting Experiences of Mecca Both Sacred and Irreverent "Ahmed Mater: Mecca Journeys at the Brooklyn Museum is an exhibition that examines the confrontation between the authentic and imagined Mecca, and of pilgrims with the tourism industry." Exhibition detail here: Brooklyn Museum, Ahmed Mater: Mecca Journeys

Prayers, Pilgrims and Power

BBC World Service, Prayers, Pilgrims and Power "The Imam Reza shrine in the Iranian city of Mashhad is a spectacular complex visited by millions of pilgrims every year. It's also spectacularly wealthy, and part of a huge business empire worth an estimated $20 billion. So the person who runs it has considerable power. Earlier this month that person changed. BBC Persian's Najieh Ghulami, who's from Mashhad, discusses the change of guard and shares memories of the shrine."

The programme also covers other issues relating to this blog, including social media and censorship in Turkey, and Saudi Arabian comedy (which has a social media element).

Crane crash at Grand Mosque of Makkah

RT.com, Crane crash at Grand Mosque of Makkah



BBC News, Mecca crane collapse: 87 dead in Saudi Arabia



alarabiya.net, Eighty-seven killed in Makkah crane collapse



also see the #Mecca hashtag on Twitter



The following initial montage contains graphic images:

  

Tawaf on Segway board: Opinions differ on whether it is Islamic

arabnews.com, Tawaf on Segway board: Opinions differ on whether it is Islamic, 1 Sep 2015 "A short video showing a pilgrim, draped in the two pieces of seamless cloth called ihram, circumambulating the Kaaba in Makkah using a Segway board, has gone viral on social media." This is an interesting issue in relation to technology and pilgrimage.

"Pilgrim Non Grata in Mecca"

Maureen Dowd, NYT, Op-ed, Pilgrim Non Grata in Mecca, 9 Mar 2010, "I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven’s gate."

"Mecca Diaries"

CNN, Suroosh Alvi, VBS.TV, Mecca Diaries, 3 Mar 2010 [note that VBS is an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York] "Based on the sheer volume of bodies, Hajj should not work. As the world's largest pilgrimage and one of the Five Pillars of Islam, each year about 3 million people cram themselves into the relatively small holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to offer up this, the holiest of Islamic rites. In late 2008, I accompanied my parents on Hajj and managed to sneak a VBS video camera past state security and capture the trip as we saw it." Opinion piece. I haven't seen this fully yet.

Smart Phones for Ka`bah

Mustafa Abu Amsha, Islam Online, Smart Phones for Ka`bah, 17 Sep 09 "For millions of pilgrims who visit the holy sites in Saudi Arabia, the ultimate prize of the day is to get the closest to the Ka`bah and be able to hear the heavenly recitation of the Quran by the imam of Al Masjid al-Haram.

"But thanks to modern technology, every pilgrim, even those praying hundreds of meters away from the mosque itself, are enjoying the same through new start-of-the-art sound phones.

"“When you are some three hundred meters away from the imam, it’s very hard to hear the voice and follow him in the prayer,” Sheikh Mansour Al-Amer, manager of Hajj and `Umrah Gifts Foundation, told IslamOnline.net."