The Religion Of The Hajj - 1734 Words

Throughout time, many aspects of life have changed in drastic ways. One common thing around the world, no matter where you are, that has evolved is over time is religion. One religion that has changed has been Islam. Something that unites all Muslims is a common belief they have; The Five Pillars. These Pillars allow the Muslim community to become one regardless of their social statue. One of the most changed of these would be the Pilgrimage to Mecca. Also known as the Hajj, â€Å" Every adult Muslim who if physically and financially able is expected to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia at least once in his or her lifetime.† (Wired.com) In the pre modern time, it was a very dangerous journey to perform the Hajj. Many thought†¦show more content†¦This caused an increase in the total population of Muslims. This also caused a mass increase in the number of Muslims that participated in the Hajj every year. Another problem that modernity presented to the Haj j was the constant fighting that was going on in the areas where Islam was dominant. Although there are more Muslims in Southeast Asia, the Middle East’s population is 91% Muslim. Even though majority of the citizens in this region practice the same religion, they are often very different. These differences of Islam caused fighting and warfare all over the Middle East, and made traveling through these regions very different. Today, many of the same problems apply. One of the biggest problems that the Muslim community had pertaining to the Hajj was the massive amount of people who attended each year. In 1941, there were about 24,000 pilgrims from countries other than Saudi Arabia. In 2013, there were 1,379,500 international pilgrims that took the pilgrimage and about 800,000 Saudi Arabians took the Hajj. Combined, over 2 million pilgrims traveled to Mecca in 2013 for the Hajj. This causes many problems for the city of Mecca. Mecca has a population of about 1.6 million resident s, over the 5 days of the Hajj, their city holds over two times as many people as it does the rest of the year. This overpopulation causes chaos throughout the entire city as pilgrims try to visit.