Hajj

Nearly 3 million pilgrims chanting prayers converged in a valley just outside the holy city of Mecca at the beginning of the five-day hajj pilgrimage. Pilgrims from about 100 countries left Mecca after completing the first ritual of the hajj by circling the sacred Kaaba stone structure inside the Grand Mosque, which Muslims all over the world face during their five daily prayers. Dressed in white robes, pilgrims piled into and on top of buses on their way to a ritual of prayer and reflection in Mina, 3 miles east of Mecca.

Tunisia has barred its citizens from making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for the first time because of a lack of flu vaccines, the government said. The Ministry of Religious Affairs said a batch of H1N1 flu vaccine would not arrive before mid-October, too late to ensure that candidates for the pilgrimage, or hajj, are vaccinated. Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Tunis said the hajj will take place in November. Millions of Muslims, including as many as 10,000 Tunisians, flock to Mecca each year for the pilgrimage, a pillar of Islamic observance.

Tunisia has barred its citizens from making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for the first time because of a lack of flu vaccines, the government said. The Ministry of Religious Affairs said a batch of H1N1 flu vaccine would not arrive before mid-October, too late to ensure that candidates for the pilgrimage, or hajj, are vaccinated. Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Tunis said the hajj will take place in November. Millions of Muslims, including as many as 10,000 Tunisians, flock to Mecca each year for the pilgrimage, a pillar of Islamic observance.

BABYLON & BEYOND Swine flu concerns affect pilgrims To curtail the spread of swine flu, Arab health ministers from across the Middle East have agreed that elderly, young and chronically ill Muslims should be forbidden from traveling to Saudi Arabia for the upcoming hajj and umrah pilgrimages. The decision came after a meeting of health ministers from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan in Cairo last week, which was part of a special session of the Regional Committee for World Health Organization on the H1N1 flu virus.

Despite calls for patience and courteousness, pilgrims pushed and shoved their way Friday around the Grand Mosque, where more than 1.5 million Muslims gathered to pray. On this last Muslim Sabbath before the peak of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia, the prayer leader urged pilgrims to be "kind, gentle, patient and tolerant to other pilgrims while they are performing the rituals."

A memorial service for Manning J. Post is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. In addition to his wife, Cheryl Reventlow Post, he is survived by a daughter, Karen Post Monteith of San Luis Obispo, and a sister, Pearl DeBuskey of New York. Post, an automobile dealer who was a longtime Democratic Party finance official and advisor to two generations of candidates, died Monday in Santa Monica at 82.

A Cairo court threw out a petition by an Islamist lawyer who sought to forcibly divorce outspoken feminist Nawal Saadawi, 70, from her Muslim husband on the grounds that she had abandoned her Islamic faith. The court ruled as expected that no individual could petition a court to forcibly divorce another person. It said such cases must be raised by a state prosecutor.

Muslims from across Orange County gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center on Thursday to usher in Eid al-Adha, the three-day Feast of Sacrifice. "We celebrate great deeds of righteousness," Muzammil H. Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, told about 5,000 worshipers gathered for a holiday that commemorates Abraham's willingness 4,000 years ago to sacrifice his son to God.

BABYLON & BEYOND Swine flu concerns affect pilgrims To curtail the spread of swine flu, Arab health ministers from across the Middle East have agreed that elderly, young and chronically ill Muslims should be forbidden from traveling to Saudi Arabia for the upcoming hajj and umrah pilgrimages. The decision came after a meeting of health ministers from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan in Cairo last week, which was part of a special session of the Regional Committee for World Health Organization on the H1N1 flu virus.

Iran said Monday that it is sending delegations throughout the Muslim world in an apparent effort to stem a wave of anti-Iranian sentiment in the wake of violent clashes at Islam's holiest shrines in Mecca. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's revolutionary leader, blamed the United States for the Iranian deaths and vowed revenge. "We hold America responsible for these crimes," the 87-year-old patriarch said in a message to leaders of Iranian pilgrims at the holy city in Saudi Arabia.

More than 2 million Muslims from across the globe descended on Saudi Arabia over the weekend to perform the ancient rituals of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is considered the spiritual pinnacle of a devout Muslim's life. As Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj notes in a website on the event, the word "hajj" merely means "to set out for a place."

More than 2 million Muslim pilgrims headed to Muzdalifa to symbolically cast stones at the devil. A sea of pilgrims, some on foot, moved from the plain of Arafat down a desert boulevard flanked by towering floodlights. At Muzdalifa, just outside Mecca, they gathered small pebbles to throw at large walls at the Jamarat Bridge, symbolizing the rejection of temptation.

Nearly 3 million pilgrims chanting prayers converged in a valley just outside the holy city of Mecca at the beginning of the five-day hajj pilgrimage. Pilgrims from about 100 countries left Mecca after completing the first ritual of the hajj by circling the sacred Kaaba stone structure inside the Grand Mosque, which Muslims all over the world face during their five daily prayers. Dressed in white robes, pilgrims piled into and on top of buses on their way to a ritual of prayer and reflection in Mina, 3 miles east of Mecca.

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims Friday were stranded in the Gaza Strip, unable to fulfill their plans to perform the hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime religious obligation. The reason: a power struggle between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah over which one has the right to distribute visas to visit Saudi Arabia.

If this were Lebanon, Raef Hajjali would have returned from Saudi Arabia to a mini-parade of family and friends, a nice long rest and new social standing in the community. Relatives and neighbors would have slaughtered a sheep in celebration and decorated his home with palm fronds. "The whole town would have been waiting," he said. Instead, he and his wife, Ellen Hajjali, returned home to Altadena a few weeks ago to minimal fanfare, and he was back at work the next day. He didn't last long.

It's a solitary journey conducted among the multitudes, a personal communication with God alongside millions loudly having the same conversation. "I imagine it to be an ocean of people but still somehow a lonely place," said Hasan Badday just hours before he and other Muslim pilgrims from Southern California boarded buses for a vigil Tuesday on Mt. Arafat in the Saudi desert.

Muslims around the world begin observing activities associated with the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, next week. All Muslims who are physically and financially able are obligated to perform the Hajj at least once in their lives. Hajj is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith and symbolizes fully turning to God and seeking forgiveness for past sins, said Mahmoud Abdel-Baset of the Islamic Center of Southern California.

During Hajj, Malcolm realized the need for human understanding to overcome his personal problems about racism. The absence of racial images in Islam deters supremacy and facilitates pluralism within society. Malcolm manifested this doctrine, and his example for society went even deeper. He eliminated the inner oppressor to enable himself to fight the oppressors of the world.

The students stared at the overhead screen and read the words in unison: Labbaik. Allah humma labbaik. The Southern California Muslims repeated those words -- "Here I am, Lord. I am here to serve you" -- as they donned pilgrims' robes last week in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina, a key step on their pilgrimage to Mecca.

A modern, glass-topped tower glistens through dust blowing across this dilapidated Saddam Hussein-era airfield, where commercial planes haven't landed for nearly 15 years. This December, U.S. and Iraqi authorities plan to use the new air traffic control tower to guide jets shuttling locals to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage -- jump-starting what they hope will be regular commercial air service to Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. The $13.