Mecca

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will return to pre-pandemic levels this year after restrictions saw the annual religious commemoration curtailed over concerns about the coronavirus, authorities say.

A court imposed a 4-year prison sentence on man convicted of attempted murder for firing gunshots at the Saudi embassy in The Hague.

The Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia operated at full capacity Sunday, with worshippers praying shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Indonesia’s government on Thursday announced that it has canceled plans for its citizens to participate in the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the second year in a row, citing concerns over the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Muslims around the world are beginning to celebrate the second Ramadan holy month of the pandemic era, once again seeking to navigate different lockdowns and social distancing requirements in various countries, plus economic travails and factional conflicts exacerbated by the coronavirus.

Only people “immunized” against coronavirus will be allowed to perform the Islamic Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged if he wins Tuesday’s elections, he will launch direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia to ease the journey for Muslim Israelis making the Hajj pilgrimage to the holy site.

Mecca (Saudi Arabia) — Mask-clad Muslims circled Islam’s holiest site along socially distanced paths on Sunday, as Saudi authorities partially resumed the year-round umrah pilgrimage amid extensive health precautions after seven-month coronavirus hiatus.

An Iran media company has released the latest video calling for the destruction of the “capitalistic, militarized, racist, barbaric, Satanic system called America,” claiming all the world’s problems would simply disappear if the U.S. was laid flat.

Mina (Saudi Arabia) — Muslim pilgrims took part Friday in the “stoning of the devil”, using sanitised pebbles in the last major ritual of the scaled-down hajj as Saudi authorities seek to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.

The Hajj, Islam’s annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, began Wednesday with strict government imposed social distancing measures severely limiting attendance of the event — 1,000 pilgrims participated compared to last year’s 2.5 million.

This year’s hajj, which has been scaled back dramatically to include only around 1,000 Muslim pilgrims as Saudi Arabia battles a coronavirus surge, will begin on July 29, authorities said Monday. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia has issued guidelines for about 1,000 pilgrims who will be allowed to perform the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca later this month, an experience that will be unlike any before because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Saudi Arabia has banned international visitors from making the annual Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, this year in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus.

RIYADH — — Saudi Arabia is expected to scale back or call off this year’s hajj pilgrimage for the first time in its modern history, observers say, a perilous decision as coronavirus cases spike.

Riyadh — Saudi Arabia will end its nationwide coronavirus curfew from June 21, except in the holy city of Mecca, the interior ministry said Tuesday, after more than two months of stringent curbs.

Saudi Arabia will maintain a national curfew the during the five-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which begins in a little more than a week, state media said Wednesday.

Riyadh — Saudi Arabia is treading a tightrope as it bars Muslim pilgrims from Islam’s holiest sites to contain the coronavirus, rolling out restrictions that while essential could prove both expensive and politically perilous.

The government of Saudi Arabia banned travel to the holiest cities in Islam, Mecca and Medina, on Thursday and banned all tourist visas to people from nations affected by the Chinese coronavirus.

Riyadh — Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended visas for visits to Islam’s holiest sites for the “umrah” pilgrimage, an unprecedented move triggered by coronavirus fears that raises questions over the hajj, which starts in July.

TEL AVIV – In a first, Israelis citizens will now be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia under limited circumstances relating to religion and business, Israel’s interior ministry announced Sunday.

At least 80 Muslims who participated in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Islam’s holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia over the weekend died.

Iranians who gathered in Islam’s holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia over the weekend for the annual hajj pilgrimage called for Israel’s destruction and chanted “Death to America.”

The annual hajj pilgrimage that brings some two million Muslims to the religion’s holiest site in Mecca has once again become the subject of political controversy as Muslims opposed to the government of Saudi Arabia are urging others to boycott the event.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain over the weekend chastised their fellow Sunni Arab Gulf country Qatar for dismissing two summits in the holy city of Mecca focused on admonishing Iran over its alleged aggressions and criminal acts in the Middle East and beyond.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, at the start of two emergency summits in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday, intensified rhetoric against its regional foe Iran, urging Arab leaders to combat Tehran’s “criminal actions” in the Middle East and beyond.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly expected to convene an emergency summit in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday aimed at discussing recent “aggressions and their consequences” with top Gulf Arab leaders amid escalating military tensions between Iran and the United States.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi-owned media accused Iran-backed rebels in Yemen on Tuesday of targeting Islam’s holiest city Mecca after Riyadh and its allies said they had intercepted two missiles over the kingdom.

Mariah Carey, one of the world’s most celebrated artists, is performing in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the first time, but there’s a growing chorus of Saudi women calling on her to cancel the concert to show support for detained women’s rights activists.

Islam’s holiest site has been hit by a swarm of locusts forcing religious authorities to launch an unprecedented clean-up operation.

Officials in Saudi Arabia have yet to confirm or deny reports this week that Sheikh Dr. Saleh bin Mohammed Al Talib, imam and preacher of the Grand Holy Mosque on Mecca, has been arrested. 

Mina (Saudi Arabia) – Thousands of cleaners are busy separating plastic from other rubbish as more than two million Muslims wrap up a pilgrimage to Mecca that presents a huge environmental challenge for Saudi Arabia.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Mansour al-Amer swipes a card to reveal a narrow sleep pod, reminiscent of Japan’s famed capsule hotels. But this pod is in Saudi Arabia, where the Muslim hajj pilgrimage begins Sunday.

The annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj, which observant Muslims are supposed to make at least once during their lives, officially begins on August 19. Mecca is located in Saudi Arabia, which is currently embroiled in serious disputes with Muslim nations such as Qatar, Iran, and Yemen, as well as Western countries with Muslim citizens who wish to make the pilgrimage, most notably Canada.

TEL AVIV – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei celebrated his 79th birthday on Monday by calling for the destruction of Israel and slamming President Donald Trump’s as yet unveiled peace plan as a “satanic, vicious plot.”

Ahead of this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took the opportunity to once again blast Saudi Arabia over what is known as the “Mina Stampede,” which left nearly 800 Muslims dead in 2015.