A stampede that occurred during the Hajj this year in Saudi Arabia has resulted in the death of 700 people, along with 900 people getting injured.
The pilgrims were travelling from Muzdalifah towards Mina to cast stones at Jamarat. Jamarat has been a rather vulnerable site as the population density rises there; in 2006, 360 people died there, which resulted in the expansion of the Jamarat Bridge in 2007.
This expansion allowed 250,000 people to cross the bridge each hour; it was an achievement of that time. However, what we fail to acknowledge is that the larger bridge now attracts more pilgrims at a time, which only causes the pressure to increase in the intersections and routes from the tent cities of Mina to the bridge. In turn, this increases the chance of stampedes, suggesting that expansion of structures and increase in construction is not the solution. Of course, it facilitates pilgrims and makes the experience of Hajj more comfortable, but at the same time, it increases pressure and population density in spaces that have not been redefined. Hence, the ideal solution would be setting a new limit to the number of people; a decrease in population density will make the area less vulnerable and decrease the chance of stampedes occurring.
This is not to disregard the efforts the Saudi authorities have made otherwise to keep track of affairs, such as the deployment of 100,000 security personnel, the efficient train system, and the surveillance cameras at Jamarat Bridge. At the same time, the authorities need to acknowledge the fact that all of these technical and expensive efforts go to waste when the issue of population is not addressed. Moving crowds with a density of up to four people per square meter is ideal; once the number increases, the crowd starts to move like a fluid, and people do not have enough space to comprehend the situation and make decisions. In such a time, the fall of just one person removes the force that keeps crowd in equilibrium; it creates a gap in the “fluid.” This causes others to fall in the sudden gap until the pressure eases, and this the physics of a stampede.
In my view, not doing anything about the people or population and simply focusing on the construction aspect is a form of automating the pilgrims. Even the cranes surrounding the Great Mosque of Mecca were a symbol of construction and future accommodation. However, as ironic as it is, it was this symbol that resulted in the death of 107 people during the storms. After all, these are people from all over the world and from the 56 Muslim countries, performing Hajj with so much hope and anticipation and so many prayers. They are not waves of a crowd or particles of a fluid; they are the holy travellers. Giving them the title of “martyrs” after their death that was caused by technical inefficiencies such as stampedes and crane crashes is not the solution.
The stampede is a global tragedy and should not be entangled with political issues and international tensions. What is happening now is that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is demanding an apology from Saudi Arabia for the entire incident that caused the death of 144 Iranian pilgrims. We need to acknowledge the fact that the incident was an accident and the pilgrims were not targeted. The idea of dragging in the nationality of pilgrims does not make any sense to me. One cannot say "47 Pakistani pilgrims died" or "Iranian pilgrims died," because nationality had no role to play in the death. It can also be argued that this tension from Iran stems from the Saudi-Iranian conflict regarding Yemen and Syria. However, this should not be the case; divisions of race, nations, and sects did not shape the stampede, hence they should not regulate the aftermath of the incident.
What needs to be done is that Saudi authorities need to wait for the results of their investigation and then should act upon them and set a limit on the number of pilgrims each year. This will hopefully lead to a secure and harmonious Hajj next year. As a global community, we look forward to it.
