Hajj in extraordinary heat: what a scholar of Islam saw in Mecca

By Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University Muslim pilgrims in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 18, 2024. AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool At least 1,300 people died because of scorching heat during the Hajj pilgrimage in June 2024. It’s not the first time that such a tragic incident hit the pilgrimage. More than a thousand were killed in a heat wave in 1985, and deaths due to stampedes and other crowd-related disasters have been reported in previous years. But despite the risks, millions of Muslims perform the pilgrimage; this year alone, some 1.8 million participated in it. I, too, performed Hajj this year by traveling from the United States to Saudi Arabia. This not only allowed me to fulfill my religious duty as a Muslim, but it also gave me the opportunity to observe the diversity of Muslim societies as a social scientist studying Islam and politics. While the tragic deaths came to be the focus of much of the media coverage, there were many other dimensions of Hajj 2024. Hajj is a personal spiritual journey that also involves meeting Muslims from diverse backgrounds. But, of late, the Saudi government’s management of this gathering has...