Iranians find ‘peace and safety’ during Haj

MAKKAH: Being in Makkah has been nothing short of blissful for Hassan Qadiri, where participating in the festivities of the Haj pilgrimage is a welcome relief after weeks of devastating war back home in Iran. Qadiri and his family took cover as intense Israeli and American bombing raids targeted his native city of Isfahan in central Iran until an April ceasefire began. “We hear the call to prayer every day, not explosions here,” Qadiri said. “I’m very happy.” Like many Iranians at this year’s Haj, Qadiri and his family are staying in a hotel near the Grand Mosque under the protection of Saudi security personnel, who actively prevent others from approaching the grounds to meet or speak with the pilgrims. The protocol is not provided to other visiting pilgrims. “The Saudi treatment of us is good and everything is fine,” Qadiri added. His wife, who did not give her name and wore a black abaya with a turquoise vest that read “Isfahan”, agreed. “Being here makes the war easier for us to bear,” she added. Throughout the holy city, Iranian flags can be seen printed on white pilgrims’ garments, cloaks, bags and buses. Tense past According to Iran’s IRNA state news agency, due to the “wartime situation” just over 30,000 Iranian pilgrims out of an expected 86,700 made the journey to Saudi Arabia for Haj. The Haj has been an uneasy flashpoint in the past between the Sunni monarchy in Riyadh and the Shia revolutionary government in Tehran. In the years following Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, Saudi officials accused Iranian pilgrims of triggering stampedes and other violence, while also yelling political slogans — an act seen as taboo by the religious establishment in Makkah. The last major dispute erupted after one of the pilgrimage’s biggest tragedies, in 2015, when 464 Iranians were among 2,300 pilgrims killed in a stampede, prompting recriminations between Riyadh and Tehran. Relations were severed a year later after protesters attacked Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and