Hujjat al-Islam Muhammad Khojesteh, a member of the Assembly of Islamic Scholars of Bahrain, referred to the 2015 Mina stampede and the martyrdom of at least 2,431 Hajj pilgrims and said, “In the tragic Mina disaster, a large number of Hajj pilgrims to the ‘House of God’ [Ka’bah] were sadly martyred. Without doubt, it wasn’t the first Hajj incident and won’t be the last. Each year during the Hajj, we witness unpleasant and distressing incidents which indicates that the Al Saud are unable to administer the Hajj rituals in a desirable manner. Each year, a number of Hajj pilgrims are killed for the sole reason that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have the ability to administer the Hajj.”
The Bahraini Shi’ah cleric added, “Given that the holy shrines and the Hajj season belong to all Muslims, it’s the natural right of the Muslims for the Hajj to be transferred to the Muslim people, especially since the Al Saud regime doesn’t have the ability and merit to continue to administer this divine obligation. Therefore, there must be a serious demand from Islamic countries for accurate and correct administration which is in accordance with the status of Muslims and I believe that if demanded, this will be achieved.”
Hujjat al-Islam Khojesteh criticized the politicization of the Hajj by the Al Saud regime and the prohibition of some Yemeni, Syrian and Qatari pilgrims from performing the Hajj pilgrimage and said, “God has made the Abrahamic Hajj obligatory on those who are able to perform it and the Al Saud and no state nor any government has the right to prevent anyone from performing the Hajj because its a divine duty and obligation. Hence, increasing pressure on Iranian pilgrims and also banning Yemeni pilgrims demonstrates that the Al Saud don’t deserve to manage the Hajj ceremony.”
He also pointed to the issue of not claiming the rights of the victims of the Mina incident by the Arab-Islamic governments, saying, “With great sorrow, the victims of the Mina tragedy became the playthings of the interests and politics of these governments. Many of the Hajj pilgrims who lost their lives due to the negligence, mismanagement and politicization of Hajj, not only in the Mina incident, but also in many similar events, were non-Iranians nationals, but they didn’t hesitate to protest the victims of this incident.”
His Eminence added that after the Mina incident, at a time when the Hajj hadn’t yet ended and when many countries had just lost a large number of their citizens in this bitter incident, immediately Arab leaders and kings, including the Egyptian president [Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi], sent messages congratulating the Al Saud and celebrated their efforts in managing the Hajj in the best method possible.
“It’s clear that all these words are intended to serve the political interests of the Arab statesmen and innocent people are the only victims of this power struggle,” he said.
Hujjat al-Islam Khojesteh expressed his astonishment over the transfer of the security operations of the Hajj to a company which assists in the Israeli occupation of Palestine [G4S] and added, “Over the past ten years, more than ten Christian churches in Europe and the United States have sanctioned Hewlett-Packard for supporting Israeli settlements but Saudi authorities have given control over the security operations of the Hajj to an Israeli company and this is an issue of grave concern. I make it clear that the Al Saud regime, its supporters and its regional followers have become more radical than the Israeli Zionists.”
“With the appointment of Muhammad ibn Salman [as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia], the Al Saud wants to prove to the United States in every possible way that they’re safe from any internal coup d’états or foreign actions, so it has the cooperation with the US and Israel on the agenda,” he added.
/SR
