American Muslims Seek U.S. Protection During Hajj

Last week, a coalition of 28 Muslim groups in the United States wrote Securetary of State John Kerry (full text of letter) asking for U.S. action to protect the safety of American Muslims who will travel to Saudi Arabia in October on Hajj.  According to the letter, in the past protection was lacking:

In 2013, a group of American Muslims from Dearborn, Michigan, was attacked during the Hajj by a group of Australian pilgrims because they are Shias, a minority denomination within Islam. The Americans were physically and verbally assaulted—including men being strangled and women threatened with rape—and alleged that though Saudi authorities were present, these authorities did not intervene or take their complaints seriously. Further, the victims allege that Saudi authorities deleted cell phone video recordings of the attack.  The victims sought assistance from the U.S. Embassy, but disturbingly their phone calls were not returned.

RNS reports on the letter.  On Sunday, without mentioning the letter, the State Department posted a Hajj Fact Sheet on its website. The section on Safety mentions problems of fraud and theft, but does not allude to physical attacks. The State Department's website also has a general page on "Help for U.S. Citizen Victims of Crime Overseas."

Pakistan Supreme Court Issues Orders In Hajj Corruption Case

In Suo Moto Case No. 24 of 2010, (Pak. Sup. Ct., Dec. 6, 2013), a 3-judge bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court handed down a decision in the long-running case involving massive corruption in the arrangements for Pakistani Hajj pilgrims for the year 2010. the court held:

(i) Federal Investigation Agency is directed to probe into the matter in depth and determine as to whether the extra amount charged by the authorities has been reimbursed to the Hujjaj or not?

(ii) Strict measures should be adopted in future in order to avoid such like incidents of corruption in Hajj arrangements, whereby not only the pilgrims had been looted but also it had brought a bad name to the country.

(iii) The Government should issue the guidelines regarding the Hajj arrangements including hiring of buildings for providing accommodation to Hujjaj as well as transportation and other facilities during Hajj.

(iv) The FIA is directed to take strict action against all those persons including politicians, officers and others in echelons of power, who interfered with and hampered the investigation....

(v) The amount of Rs.5000/- charged by the Hajj Tour Operators from each Haji in excess of the actual amount be refunded to them.

Reporting on the decision, the Express Tribune explained:

Former Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi, former director-general Hajj affairs Rao Shakeel and former additional secretary to ministry of religious affairs Raja Aftabul Islam were accused of being involved in widespread corruption.  They were accused of renting residential buildings for Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia at exorbitant rates and inflicting a loss of a billion rupees to the national exchequer.

(See prior related posting.)