Polarized Conflicts

"In the incident, no abuse has happened, and the two policemen who attempted abuse were identified and detained by Saudi police."
Fars news agency

The Great Mosque, Mecca

A half-million Iranians trek to Saudi Arabia annually to take part in the umrah pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam. Saudi Arabia prides itself on being the custodian of those sacred places. To the Saudis fall the responsibility of the logistics of hosting millions of pious Muslims for whom the pilgrimage represents a vital lifetime obligation to their religious devotion of Islam. Every Muslim hopes at least once in their lifetime to make the journey.

Another 100,000 Iranian pilgrims travel yearly to Saudi Arabia for the main Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, after the holy month of Ramadan. This too is a ritual required of every able-bodied Muslim in their lifetime, as proof of their submission to Islam and in veneration of Islam's values of substance in the faith, leading the faithful to a more refined internal aura of worthiness and worship.

But now, Iran has suspended all umrah pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia. The two countries are at obvious odds with one another over sectarian-political issues with the Islamic Republic of Iran interfering in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and now Yemen and possibly Bahrain, to the extent that they have become satellites of Iranian hegemony. The issue is one of sectarian divisions, suspicion, hatred and power.

That underlying tension has led to Iran in essence slapping Saudi Arabia with accusations of lack of neutrality in their administration of the two holy sites. Iran's Culture Ministry determined to suspend pilgrimages on the basis of alleged abuse that two male Iranian pilgrims travelling through Jeddah airport were exposed to. Hossein Nooshabadi representing the Iranian culture ministry informed state TV that until the Saudi government "applies a strong attitude" to the case the pilgrimage will remain suspended.

Calling into question Saudi Arabia's capabilities and devotion to its duties as custodian of the site represents a severe rebuke as far as the Saudis are concerned. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered an investigation, and a Saudi diplomat was summoned before Iran's foreign ministry to proffer an explanation for the alleged treatment of the two men. Even though a representative of Iran's top leader on hajj affairs downplayed the incident, claiming Iranian pilgrims did not suffer abuse.

Clearly, the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen which have targeted Shiite Houthi rebels are behind the implied slight, just as Saudi rage over Iran's backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime's brutality against Sunni Syrian civilians and Saudi fears over Iran's nuclear agenda are behind Saudi Arabia's decision-making on the political-military front.

Janatul Maala - Makkah Saudi Arabia

Iranian students have staged several demonstrations before the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest of those Yemen air strikes. The strict Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam typical of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has met its match in the severe Shiite practise of Islam in the Islamic Republic of Iran; each a state position on the only authentic and acceptable mode of Islamic devotion; the other representing a contorted, unacceptable worship of Islam.

Shiites consider Sunnis to be infidels, and the reverse returns the compliment. Iran has demanded that its pilgrims be permitted to hold "disavowal of infidels" ceremonies on the hajj, essentially rallies denouncing Israel and the United States, an ally of Saudi Arabia, while Saudi Arabia has banned those demonstrations at hajj. One such unauthorized rally in 1987 resulted in clashes with Saudi security where over 400 mostly Iranian pilgrims were killed.

Islam is clearly unwell within itself.