In the west African Muslim world, there is a noticeable resistance to vaccination as it is believed to be dangerous, against Islam, a zionist plot etc etc etc. As a result of the Hajj the WHO has been reporting a sharp rise world wide incidence of polio across the Muslim world, from Africa to Indonesia.

In April 2007, more than 40 million children were vaccinated over five days in synchronized vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The national governments ran these mass campaigns with support from WHO and other polio eradication partners.

Conventional wisdom has the more extreme expressions of Islam resident in these two countries, yet they're apparently not too resistant to polio vaccinations.

Reality is never quite what it seems (it seems to me).

If you can

Spare one stone for hawk

AKA Ibni-Shaitan

In his auobiography, Malcolm X said that witnessing the Hajj and meeting Muslims of various ethnic groups in Africa was one of the things that led him to leave the Nation of Islam and made him more open to the possibility of interracial cooperation in the United States.

It's nice to read some news item that does not paint Moslems as blood-thirsty boogiemen. This makes sense and fits with my personal experience with the Moslems I have worked with over the years.

Now if we can find some activity to make Christians more tolerant...

The Hajj, as I understand it, is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. Every musilm who has the means is required to make the pilgrimage once in his lifetime. It stands to reason that, having fulfilled that requirement, the Hajjis would feel better about themselves and therefore tend to be more tolerant of others. I'm curious to know if this condition lasts for any length of time in most Hajjis.

What I don't understand is how Saudi Arabia, being a singularly muslim country and under Islamic law, can justify limiting the number of Muslims who are allowed to make the pilgrimage each year.

The numbers of pilgrims has to be carefully regulated

Or teaming millions of people would pour into Mecca and Medina

There would be such a flood of millions upon millions

That it would become

As it has in the past

An unorganized traffic of pilgrims trampling pilgrims

It's breathtaking to nearly wipe out a horrible disease only to have it snatched from the jaws of victory by the (shakes magic 8-Ball............) The Jews.

(shakes magic 8-Ball............) The Jews.

Nice.

Wait, I should add 'Shalom' to deter any who might misunderstand my meaning (which is reality-based).