Trouble seems to have found this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca before the season even started. On Sept. 11, a huge crane being used in the ongoing expansion of the Mecca precinct collapsed, killing more than 100 pilgrims and injuring many others. The tragedy was so catastrophic that King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, promised a full investigation and visited the site of the accident and the injured. Like many other accidents in the past, this disaster brought to attention the contested nature of Saudi control over the holiest site of Islam.
The Saudi leadership boasts about its efforts to welcome the pilgrims and expand the area where they can perform their annual ritual, the quality of the health services it offers and, most important, the safety and security of pilgrims.
