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Mecca

Pilgrims are shown from above around the cube-like Kaaba in Mecca walking on specified lines and carrying colored umbrellas.

PHOTOS: Very different, symbolic hajj in Saudi Arabia amid the coronavirus

Religion

Muslim pilgrims, donning face masks and moving in small groups after days in isolation, began arriving at Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Wednesday for the start of a historically unique and scaled-down hajj experience reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic.

A police officer wears a face mask to prevent contracting coronavirus, as Muslim pilgrims pray at Kaaba in the Grand mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 27, 2020.

Saudi Arabia imposes travel ban to Mecca over coronavirus

Every year, millions of Muslims from around the world descend upon Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the Hajj.

Politics complicate the hajj spiritual journey for some Muslims

Religion
Hajj cameras

All-seeing ‘eye’ watches over Mecca pilgrims

Religion

Pain lingers one year after Hajj tragedy in Saudi Arabia

Belief
An aerial view of the Haj pilgrimage in Mecca

“You’re not Muslims!” Iran and Saudi Arabia in new war of words.

Global Politics

Iran and Saudi Arabia have upped the ante in their war of words. Both are now denouncing the other’s Islamic legitimacy. The two Persian Gulf powers are already locked in numerous proxy conflicts across the region. The US is not happy about the mess.

Hajia Bilkisu Yusuf sits with former first lady, Laura Bush, at the National Center for Women's Development in Abuja, Nigeria, January 2006.

Lost in the Hajj stampede was a pioneering journalist who united Christians and Muslims

Belief

Among those killed in the crush of the Hajj crowd in Mina, Saudi Arabia, last week was a woman beloved in Nigeria and beyond. Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, a pioneering journalist and activist, broke down barriers in a patriarchal society.

Tala Khudairi and Jack Lindsay are two of the pilgrims who appear in a new PBS documentary about the Hajj.

PBS goes on the Hajj with Muslim pilgrims from around Boston

Belief

When a group of Muslims from the Boston area make the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage for millions of Muslims around the world, they discover it’s a test of their patience and endurance. It was equally so for the group of PBS filmmakers who followed the pilgrims to Mecca.

A pilgrim participates in the cleansing ritual at Osun’s Sacred Grove during the festival of Osun-Osogbo.

6 incredible pilgrimages around the world

Best-selling author and adventurer Bruce Feiler takes an epic journey traveling with contemporary pilgrims on six historic pilgrimages and explores how these sacred landscapes and revitalized routes are reshaping faith.

First LGBT-friendly mosque opens in France

Lifestyle & Belief

In Europe and the United States, Muslims, including a group called Muslims for Progressive Values, are pushing for making mosques more inclusive — to serve all people. Some say this could be the beginning of a reformation of Islam.