Following the crane collapse into the Grand Mosque of Mecca earlier this month, a deadly stampede has now claimed 717 lives and left 805 wounded, in what is now becoming the bloodiest Hajj in known history. Every year, millions of Muslims converge on the holy capital of Mecca, in the heart of Saudi Arabia, to fulfill their Islamic requirement of making the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.
This year has been bloody not only for those of the Islamic faith but for the followers of Christianity also. In Syria alone, more than 1,000 Christians have reportedly been killed, entire villages cleared, and dozens of churches and Christian centers damaged or destroyed from the wave of radical Islamist violence in that region. With this year’s visitors of the Islamic faith convening from all over the world, including regions of Syria and Iraq where Christians have been heavily persecuted, one can’t help but wonder if this might be an example of God’s powerful wrath in action.
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