More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, Saudi authorities announced Sunday.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel said that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city of Mecca.

Speaking with the state-owned Al Ekhbariya TV, the minister said 95 pilgrims were being treated in hospitals, some of whom were airlifted for treatment in the capital, Riyadh. He said the identification process was delayed because there were no identification documents with many of the dead pilgrims.

He said the dead were buried in Mecca, without giving a breakdown.

  • Optional
    link
    655 months ago

    I still sorta think we shouldn’t have killed the planet with pollution and deforestation. I know it’s the sort of outrageous position that gets ExxonMobil’s CEO in a froth, but still. It just seems wrong, somehow.

      • @CitizenKong
        link
        145 months ago

        Yep, it’s not the planet’s first mass extinction rodeo. A few hundreds of thousands of years, and it’ll be right as rain again. Humanity will very likely just be a distant memory then.

  • @carl_dungeon
    link
    English
    605 months ago

    Guess God doesn’t like those people in particular huh.

  • @penguinsAreRapists
    link
    36
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    How do we get the maga folks to believe they need to make a pilgrimage to the middle of Arizona?

    • Match!!
      link
      fedilink
      English
      175 months ago

      Arizona’s not enough they should do the reverse migrant trip to south america through the darién gap

  • @Grimy
    link
    295 months ago

    The pilgrimage is going to become like one of those tropes where only one person ever comes back alive and he becomes king.

    • Erasmus
      link
      English
      55 months ago

      There can be…only one!!

  • @ummthatguy
    link
    English
    235 months ago

    Where faith and logic fail to see eye to eye, we get such needless tragedy like this.

  • @LesserAbe
    link
    225 months ago

    I wasn’t aware until reading this that 2,400 people died in a stampede in 2015

    • @werefreeatlast
      link
      -215 months ago

      1 person of average intelligence…hmmm okay, all good. 10 people is Ok. 100, 500, 1000 all good.10k 🤔 hmm things starting to feel a little crowded. 100k, all take 1 step to the left, one steps on another’s foot and bam, you got a human stampede. 2,400 deady In just a few seconds. The average intelligence in the stampede is probably minimal.

      • @Butterpaderp
        link
        95 months ago

        This comment reeks of average intelligence

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      English
      165 months ago

      I kinda woulda assumed that with all the infrastructure there they’d be able to get people water, at least.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        15 months ago

        They have infrastructure, but it’s only for people who are on the registered list of 1.8 million. Anyone not on that list is taking a risk that I hope is made clear to them.

    • @Taalen
      link
      85 months ago

      One way of taking human sacrifice

    • @800XL
      link
      05 months ago

      This explains the anti-abortion stance of the right. Can’t allow abortions because it’s more important they grow up to suffer by their god’s hands as they make a pilgrimmage to worship that god. As thanks he lets them die suffering and miserable from the decisions of their god’s other believers. You know, the ones with all the oil and the heads of the companies that profess to believe and vote for people who will keep this shit going.

    • @Daveyborn
      link
      English
      165 months ago

      The one here had a pregnant lady standing outside in the sun on a 95 degree day.

  • @Mediocre_Bard
    link
    -1
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    It’s what Muhammad would have wanted.

    Edit: Amusingly, explaining the search results for “Rule 34 Muhammad” to my 10-year-old daughter was less awkward than I anticipated.