Hajj must be held under auspices of all Muslims: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hazem Salem, an activist and political commentator, to discuss the failure of Saudi authorities to ensure the safety of Hajj pilgrims following a tragic crush on September 24, 2015.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: I would like to get your opinion, if I may, one year on since the Mina tragedy it seems at least the criticism that is being leveled against the Saudi Arabia’s government is that the Saudi regime has not learned from its mistakes?

Salem: Well the fact is the situation is much more complex than that and the idea of securing the pilgrims has been an issue especially since the incidents of last year.

The idea of establishing new measures has been there but the establishment of the new measures has raised more concerns as well. There has been some news claiming that there will be an Israeli company that will be securing the pilgrims and this has been denied by Saudi Arabia but the emergence of the news was in itself alarming.

The fact is the Muslim nation has not been divided as much as it is today and though Hajj was supposed to be the situation and the occasion for the Muslims to meet and to talk about their problems and how to face the challenges, this has not been the case.

Many of the governments of the Muslim world including the Arab world altogether have been quite away from their societies, quite away from the people. They do not drive real legitimacy and this is clouding the situation between the different governments.

The situation needs the Muslims to talk over the year about their concerns not to come to the incident of Hajj and show all the differences and show all the concerns. The concerns are there and it needs to be addressed. I hope that the Hajj occasion this year goes on safely but the concerns will continue to be there and there should be assurances that such situation last year will not reoccur once again.

Press TV: Saudi Arabia insists that it has put in place safety measures as you have just pointed out as well which have raised questions. However, of course the biggest question there is if Saudi Arabia does not allow a proper investigation into what happened last year, it would be hard to put in place the correct safety measures that are needed to put in place?

Salem: Well the fact is if you make an investigation about your own mistakes, you will be embarrassing yourself unless you are courageous enough to admit your mistakes and to correct them, you will keep the investigation frozen and apparently this was more or less the situation and that is why the proper investigation will not come with no people to hold accountable and those who are to be held accountable would be the Saudi authorities.

That is why the Saudi authorities should give the investigation to an impartial body, even the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in order to come up with solid investigation, solid results and thus solid recommendations what to do to avoid the reoccurrence of such a thing.

Press TV: And there have been calls made by including the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution of an international commission from the Muslim world that overlooks the management of the Hajj pilgrimage. Is that an option that can be explored?  

Salem: Well this should be an option that should not be let down and this should be an option that should not be rejected. If someone says I wish to help you to make things better, you should welcome that help and the Hajj incident, the Hajj occasion, should be more or less under the auspices of all Muslims, maybe represented by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and this organization which has a premises in Jeddah can be selecting a committee from all Muslim countries in order to facilitate the Hajj for all Muslims.

This can be an option and this should be presented to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the other Islamic fora in order to get this going on and this should not be rejected by any party including the Saudi. 

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