Special Correspondent: Looking for Allah as a Shiite in Saudi Arabia
I came to Mecca seeking spiritual enlightenment. I found discrimination and distrust.
MEDINA and MECCA, Saudi Arabia — It’s an image famous the world over: a teeming swirl of pilgrims, thousands upon thousands garbed in white, wending slowly in circles around a two-story gilded black cube. Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, and the mosque that surrounds it, has captivated both Muslims and non-Muslims alike for more than a millennium. It is the religion’s ultimate symbol of global spiritual unity, the direction toward which every Muslim in the world prays.
But photographs can lie. Praying at the spiritual center of Islam as a Shiite Muslim, the smaller of Islam’s two major sects, is like attending Catholic mass as a Southern Baptist. Or these days, perhaps more accurately, it’s like attending Catholic mass at the Vatican as a Protestant during the Counter-Reformation.
I performed a pilgrimage just a week after the Saudi government executed dissident Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose death set off a wave of protests in Shiite communities around the world, including a torching of Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran, which prompted the kingdom to sever diplomatic ties with Iran. It was a culmination of years of worsening relations between the world’s premier Sunni power and its geopolitical and religious rival, the majority-Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran.
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WNU Editor: It is very revealing that the author for this report is keeping his name private ... I guess he knows many Sunnis who may object to his commentary. I have a Shiite friend who did the pilgrimage to Mecca a few years ago before today's Sunni-Shiite differences exploded. As he told me a few weeks ago .... it was pretty bad then, and he can only imagine what it is today. Now we have a good idea.
14 comments:
Im a sunni and although I don't agree with shias, I still respect them.
You don't have to believe in someone's views to respect them.
There's nothing wrong with disagreement, respect is the important thing.
Salim
Have you gone or plan on going to Mecca?
Yeah, I'm planning on going at least once in my lifetime (not sure when)
Why?
Salim,
Well be careful.
Curiosity and small talk is all..... I'm not that religious.
But I respect people with faith and the thought of a greater good.
I try to be humble.
James
The key word is....TRY!
phill,
I'm sorry I didn't really understand your last comment.
I would consider people who try to be humble as extremely rare.
Don't lose that quality ;)
U don't understand, What makes you say that? Lol I'm the sunni, it's shias that should be careful, is that what you meant?
I dont understand*
Deaths at the Haji.
Salim,
The trip has been known to be dangerous, I just was wishing a safe trip for you.
Really? Most of my family members have gone twice with no problems, yeah the crane accident happened recently but these things hardly ever happen, in fact I would consider the place I currently live (north east England) as more dangerous lol.
And thanks for your concern James, I appreciate it :)
I just hope that by the time I go, Iran and Saudi Arabia will be playing along nicely and that the Saudis will have less enemies. In sha Allah (God willing).
Salam, Salim,
It's a bit more dangerous than London, unless you live in a really, really dodgy part of London.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_during_the_Hajj
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