Saudi Arabia: 1.5 million join Hajj pilgrimage despite war
Key takeaways
- Saudi Arabia has been directly hit by missiles and drones during the Iran war, but the country is hosting the all-important Muslim pilgrimage anyway.
- https://p.dw.com/p/5Dyr2In 2019, around 2.5 million pilgrims attended Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
- The Hajj is a once-a-year event that draws millions of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform rituals that every believer is supposed to carry out at least once in their lives, if they are able to.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Saudi Arabia has been directly hit by missiles and drones during the Iran war, but the country is hosting the all-important Muslim pilgrimage anyway.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Dyr2In 2019, around 2.5 million pilgrims attended Hajj in Saudi Arabia. But numbers dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have yet to return to those highs Image: Ali Atmaca/Anadolu/picture alliance Advertisement. This year is the first time that Saudi Arabia has chosen to go ahead with the annual Hajj pilgrimage while it is also in the middle of a war that has seen direct strikes on Saudi territory.
The Hajj is a once-a-year event that draws millions of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform rituals that every believer is supposed to carry out at least once in their lives, if they are able to. It is one of the largest gatherings of humans worldwide, and this year's Hajj runs between May 25 and May 29 with around 1.5 million pilgrims expected in Saudi Arabia. Over the past three years, between 1.7 and 1.8 million have attended.