A Pakistani friend and colleague sent me this (I post with his permission):
"Knowing ahead of time the obscenities and oppression emanating from the House of Saud helped me to have a decent hajj. But it is clear the material contradictions of the entire "spiritual" experience are escalating. Muslims tend to praise the House of Saud for making such great arrangements for these millions of pilgrims. But the Saudi royal family knows that this whole religious affair is one of their principal sources of pseudo-legitimacy, so it understands the need to facilitate a good "spiritual-consumerist" hajj...that of course excludes the many who have no camps but languish on the streets, or whose camps are not exactly what hey had bargained for. And finally, let me just say that I was looking forward to one of the last rituals of hajj: the stoning of Satan (represented in the form of three pillars). But I was running out of pebbles by the time I got to the stoning site. I had run into, and happily launched my stones at, some worthy competitors: the Mall of Mecca and the disgustingly ubiquitous pictures of the Saudi king. Talk about Wahhabi hypocrisy when it claims to be emphasizing "anti-idolatry". Apparently idolatry is OK when it comes to bowing before the brutal imbeciles running the country."
"Knowing ahead of time the obscenities and oppression emanating from the House of Saud helped me to have a decent hajj. But it is clear the material contradictions of the entire "spiritual" experience are escalating. Muslims tend to praise the House of Saud for making such great arrangements for these millions of pilgrims. But the Saudi royal family knows that this whole religious affair is one of their principal sources of pseudo-legitimacy, so it understands the need to facilitate a good "spiritual-consumerist" hajj...that of course excludes the many who have no camps but languish on the streets, or whose camps are not exactly what hey had bargained for. And finally, let me just say that I was looking forward to one of the last rituals of hajj: the stoning of Satan (represented in the form of three pillars). But I was running out of pebbles by the time I got to the stoning site. I had run into, and happily launched my stones at, some worthy competitors: the Mall of Mecca and the disgustingly ubiquitous pictures of the Saudi king. Talk about Wahhabi hypocrisy when it claims to be emphasizing "anti-idolatry". Apparently idolatry is OK when it comes to bowing before the brutal imbeciles running the country."
