Since Saudi Arabia wants Assad ousted, the Saudi police were in the position of crushing a demonstration that supported a Saudi political policy.
But the Saudis say they oppose any and all political activity during a religious event like the hajj. They have used that argument to ban Iran’s annual “Disavowal of Infidels” rally, an anti-American and anti-Israeli political event.
A quarter century ago, when Iran staged the rally in the streets of Mecca, Saudi security men responded with force and killed 402 people, mostly Iranians. Subsequently, Iran agreed to a Saudi order that the Disavowal of Infidels rally be confined inside the headquarters camp of the Iranian assembly at the hajj.
Iran has honored that deal ever since. There were rumors it would void it this year and try to hold a rally in the streets. But according to news accounts, the rally was held last Thursday and confined to the Iranian encampment 20 kilometers southeast of Mecca.
The Reuters news agency said “hundreds” of Syrians gathered Sunday near the Jamarat Bridge in Mina to shout demands for Assad’s ouster. Two police vehicles drove slowly toward the crowd with sirens wailing and loudspeakers blasting orders that they disperse. The crowd did disperse and no one as injured, Reuters said.
The site of the protest was next to the location of the ritual stoning of the devil, which concludes the hajj.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi issued his annual message to the hajjis. The first part of the message was like a sermon. But more than half of the message was a political document that supported Arab uprisings (except in Syria) and charged the United States with seeking to lead the revolutionaries to battle one another.
He said, “Corrupt American, NATO and Zionist agents are trying to divert the deluge-like movement of Muslim youth and bring them into confrontation with one another in the name of Islam, thus converting an anti-colonial and anti-Zionist struggle into blind terrorism waged in the streets of the Islamic world, so that the blood of Muslims is spilled by their own hands and the enemies of Islam are rescued from their dead-end while Islam and its warriors are maligned in public opinion.”