: Over 700 dead in hajj pilgrimage stampede

[Mac-7]

Some have said in the past that Satan mocks everything that God does....

I think so.

[exotix]

Just In

Death Toll now at 717

[Subdermal]

Is this like that "what do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean" joke?

[Peter1469]

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Information: I updated the title to reflect the increase in the death count.

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[southwest88]

...

There is a reason why every month or two there is a story in India about a 5-times capacity ferry sinks and hundreds die. There is a reason why there are stampedes in Mecca year after year.

...

As I recall, those stories are typically about Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, occasionally S. Korea. But yes, there's apparently a belief that greed is magically weightless. Grief, however ...

[southwest88]

Ah religious people, morons, all of them, this is what happens when a person believes in a sky pixie.

Yah, I suppose. But then, they presumably die in the bosom of their faith.

In the West & in the US generally, we have a lot of preventable deaths - people DWI or otherwise not in control of themselves; people self-medicating with alcohol, opiates, & so on. Then there are the people who overeat or under-exercise (or both), who smoke too much, who lead unhealthy lifestyles. The only real difference is that our deaths by misadventure tend to be a few @ a time in a single location - less quantitative, in other words. But if you look @ the total avoidable deaths in the US, I think the numbers - @ least as a % of the total population involved - are comparable to the deaths during the hajj.

& besides, the Islamic countries (polities? Groupings? Whatever the proper term is.) seem to regard deaths during the hajj as - acceptable? To be expected? It's the US & the West in general that make claims about the rationality of our health care, science & mathematics, engineering, life choices, education, nutrition, agriculture, political systems, etc. So if we stare into the abyss ...

[Mini Me]

This is nothing!

The garbage dump in Mexico City exploded and 2,000, 000 were made homeless!
10,000 died, but no one noticed or gave a $#@!!

[Ivan88]

Just had to butt in. My apologies. Jesus came to save us from religion.