Unity, message of Hajj pilgrimage: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, the co-founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, in London, to discuss the onset of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimages.

The following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: The Hajj rituals have begun, and once again, Muslims are, overwhelmingly, in a state of spiritual bliss. First of all, what is the message of Hajj?

Shadjareh: Well, the message of Hajj is one of unity, and the fact is that it really affects Muslims in a tremendous way. To actually explain, it I think probably, one of the ways to do it is to remember the letter that Malcolm X wrote and sent off at the time of Hajj and how he explained [it] tremendously had an impact on him.

He said that he changed his view and he said he is a man that always has responded to the realities and the truth in his life and he changed his life and he explained that the Hajj experience removed racism from him and he said ‘Here, I actually sit, sleep and eat with my fellow Muslims and I see Muslims from Africa, I see Muslims who are white with blue eyes and blonde. And this is the first time I have experience this sort of brotherhood.’

And he actually says that he wishes that the racism that exists in the United States would be removed by people experiencing that level of brotherhood. And he hoped that the unity of God, which had affected him in that way, would also affect the racist white Americans. That itself actually explains the reality of Hajj. Hajj is a sort of experience that brings man and humanity together and those of us who have been fortunate to experience it have actually changed our lives and, at a time like, this we hope and we pray that it will have the same effect on others and bring the fact of Tawhid of Allah and unity into the hearts of all mankind.

Press TV: How do you relate and apply the message of Hajj to the events of the recent political history then?

Shadjareh: Well, it really puts back the responsibility of purification on all of us. And if indeed we were purified in the way we should be, we wouldn’t see this level of war and destruction that we are seeing currently.

And the irony is that the Hajj is being performed in a country which is now called Saudi Arabia and the Saudi regime itself is turning this whole principles inside out and is becoming a sign of anti-all those unity aspect and is actually killing and destroying lives of not just human beings, but its own fellow Muslims in the way we haven’t seen in the recent years.

I think especially tomorrow, when we are all asking for purification, indeed today, we need to really ask for purification for ourselves and justice for people in Yemen, in Syria and Palestine and elsewhere, and unite, not just for the sake of unity under the power of Allah, but unity for bringing justice, because all prophets, including Abraham (PBUH), have actually destroyed... one of the things that they did was destroying the idols of their time and establish justice.

We need to do that, we need to destroy these idols, be it they are Muslims or not, and actually bring justice back to this world and the brotherhood of the mankind, and I think that needs to be in the forefronts of our mind, today, tomorrow and in the days to come.

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