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MECCA

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BBC News - Saudis deny claim that US seized visiting Iranian
Source: BBC News

Saudi Arabia has denied an accusation from Iran that an Iranian nuclear scientist was detained on its soil by Saudi agents and handed over to the US. On Tuesday the Iranian foreign minister said Shahram Amiri was abducted in June while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

BBC News - Saudi Arabia orders inquiry into flash flood deaths
Source: BBC News

Saudi Arabia has ordered an inquiry into flash floods last week that killed more than 100 people, according to the state news agency. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said that the family of each of the victims would receive 1m riyals (US $267,000; £160,000), the agency reported.

Carter and Obama: Same policies, same fate.
Source: Wall St. Journal

An idealistic president takes office promising an era of American moral renewal at home and abroad. The effort includes a focus on diplomacy and peace-making, an aversion to the use of force, the selling out of old allies. The result is that within a couple of years the U.S.

Iran pilgrims stage protest as hajj peaks, shout "Death to America, death to Israel" - Yahoo! News
Source: Yahoo! News

The Iranians called for Muslim unity against the "enemies" of the faith in their camp at Mount Arafat outside of Mecca. "Death to America, death to Israel," thousands of Iranians chanted inside a huge tent on the Plain of Arafat.

Muslim Pilgrims Ascend Mount Arafat in Annual Hajj Ritual
Source: VOA News

A vast sea of white-cloaked pilgrims gathered inside and outside the Namera mosque on Mount Arafat to hear the afternoon call to prayer on the second day of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Obama's Muslim grandmother among Mecca pilgrims as personal guest of Saudi King
Source: Channel Africa

Remember Preisident Obama's grandmother? The one widely reported by the AP as a "Christian Believer". Looks like the AP really did not do any fact checking on that item. She is on the Islamic Haaj as a personal guest of the Saudi King.

Rain soaks hajj pilgrims in Mecca
Source: Telegraph

Muslim pilgrims were forced to take shelter in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday as the opening of the annual hajj was hit by the heaviest rains in years and fears of swine flu.

Hajj: 2.5m pilgrims for Arafat today
Source: triumphnewspapers.com

Muslims from many countries of the world gather today in a dignified manner reciting the praises of Allah and offering various supplications to Him with their hands raised, in accordance with the practice of Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Mecca monopoly
Source: The Daily Tribune (Without fear or favor)

MECCA — The Saudi government might manage the hajj, but the people who make it run for two million or more pilgrims are a handful of old Mecca families who monopolize the muttawif or hajj guide business. __________

DAWN.COM | World | Thirty years on, Mecca mosque siege reverberates
Source: dawn.com

RIYADH: Thirty years ago, as tens of thousands of hajj pilgrims were completing dawn prayers inside Mecca, gunshots pierced the sanctity of the Grand Mosque.

Iranian cleric shuns Mecca
Source: ynetnews.com

Iranian imam orders Shiite followers not to pray in Mecca's direction as 'infidels took over other states'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saudis 'must offer Shia equality'
Source: BBC News

From the BBC article: A report by the Human Rights Watch pressure group has detailed what it says is systematic discrimination in Saudi Arabia against Shia Muslims.

Turkish TV gameshow looks to convert atheists
Source: Reuters

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

Obama's Kenyan grandmother goes to Mecca for Hajj
Source: Digital Journal

Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother 'Mama Sarah' is undertaking the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage this year along with her son Syeed Obama.This is being reported by the Dubai-based publication Arabian Business. The Obama mother and son were apparently invited by an UAE property tycoon, i …

A Saudi Obama: the first Black Imam of Mecca
Source: jalaybi.com

Some people said that it would not happen, but future is not in our hands.

A Black Imam Breaks Ground in Mecca
Source: The New York Times

TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city.

Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned', not pointing to Kaaba
Source: BBC News

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.

Two million Muslim pilgrims gather outside Mecca for haj; some pilgrims chant "Death to America,"Death to Israel"
Source: Telegraph

Despite a ban on political activities at haj, a senior Iranian cleric gave a speech at Arafat to a group of pilgrims, who chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel", Iran's state television showed.

Hamas prevents Muslim pilgrims from leaving Gaza
Source: JPost.com

"Hamas police set up checkpoints across Gaza on Saturday to prevent pilgrims from leaving for a holy Muslim ritual in Saudi Arabia, beating some who tried to dodge barriers, witnesses said.

Source: Saudi hosts Afghan peace talks with Taliban reps - CNN.com
Source: CNN

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently hosted peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban Militants in a four-day meeting which took place in the Saudi holy-city of Mecca.

Muslim Scholars Conference in Mecca
Source: interfaith.org

It is a good begining to gatehr the intelectual and finding the answers to current problems.

Saudi police stop schoolgirls from leaving blazing building because they weren't wearing correct Islamic dress
Source: BBC News

One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya".

Excellent Newt Speech. 11/15/07 by Newt Gingrich.
Source: Free Republic

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered the following remarks to a Jewish National Fund meeting Nov. 15 at the Selig Center [in Athens, Georgia]: Let me work back. I'm going to get to Iran since that's the topic, but I'm going to get to it eventually.

Palestinian Hamas leaders from Gaza, on hajj with Israeli permission, meet Iranian bosses on escalating anti-Israel war
Source:

As Palestinian missiles and mortar bombs continued to fly against Israeli border communities, DEBKAfile reports that on Wednesday, Dec.

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