MUSLIMS BEGIN TRIP TO MECCA

CAIRO: Pilgrims have been saying their farewells at Cairo airport before leaving for Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj in the tradition, they believe, of the Prophet Mohammed and Abraham before him.

Every year tens of thousands of Egyptians apply for visas to travel to Mecca to join more than a million Muslims from across the world at the pilgrimage.

“When I was chosen, I couldn’t believe it,” says Afaf Hasan Rifai, who was selected by Egypt’s authorities to perform the hajj to start early next month.

“I started crying and I prostrated to God,” she says, her beaming husband standing next to her outside the terminal.

Every Muslim who can undertake the journey is expected to perform the pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime, but it can also be performed on behalf of another follower of the faith who is unable to do so.

Muslims have travelled to Mecca for the hajj since the seventh century, when God is believed to have ordained it in the Koran. Last year an estimated 2,300 pilgrims — among them 464 Iranians and 182 Egyptians — died in a stampede at the hajj, according to tallies from foreign officials.

It was the deadliest stampede in hajj history, and fuelled historic tensions between conservative Sunni Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Shia Iran.

Saudi authorities have announced new security measures for the hajj this year, including electronic bracelets and a reduced period for the stoning ritual during which the deaths took place.

The ritual is seen as a moment of Muslim unity gathering all nationalities and classes.