Spread Of Islam Research Paper

Every year thousands of Muslims from the Islamic religion make the journey to the city of Mecca, called a Hajj. This is the city where their founder, Muhammed, was born and a major center of commerce. Every person in the Islam religion is expected to make this travel at least once in their lifetime. The experience is one of the fiver pillars of the religion and is supposed to bring together the Muslims from across the world in unity. This year during the Hajj there was a stampede that caused a deadly killing of 717 people. Though there are usually several people in attendance for the event, none have ended with this result. Reports have been made that there were nearly two million Muslims in attendance this year and they were all rushing to perform a variety of rituals. Worshippers

Muslims during the Hajj are under a serious time constraint in order to get all of the rituals done and it soon turned it into a competition that quickly went bad. If there was not as much of a pressure from the religion to complete everything in a short amount of time, and expect thousands of people to do it, then there would not have been as much of a rush or stampede from the attendees. Another factor that could have contributed to the casualties is the heat and exhaustion they were experiencing in combination with the stress. Since followers of the religion are required to complete this journey at least once, many have to go when they can financially afford it, no matter the weather. This year several claims were made about the souring temperatures that caused several to become dizzy, faint, and often never recover. A main contributing factor according to sources was the lack of experience that came with several of the attendees. Often times no one knows quite what to expect, how to follow all the directions, or to avoid the want to take short