Reply #45: It's one bunch of wack-jobs. The crew who introduced paganism to the Hadj. [View All]

[vets74]

The basic scheme is convincing the core followers that Paradise is real, that Martyrs return to visit earth during the circle-the-Ka'aba ceremony, that these Martyrs actually speak to people.

It's the same type of scam that Harry Houdini laid into -- the phony mediums who tricked people into thinking that they were communicating with the dead. (Re-watch Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost" for a cute take on it.)

They've screwed up the Hadj with this fakery. The scheme got rolling 50 years ago, when elements of Hindu Moon worship entered the ceremonies. Faking ethereal voices is pretty easy stuff.

This perversion of religion recall fundie faith-healing and playing with rattlesnakes.

On the other hand, modernization is far more common among educated Saudis. Thousands of the Saudi kids come to England or the U.S. for college.

"They" is way too broad a brush to apply.

No denying it, though, elements of KSA's "royal family" mix their own personal narcissism with wack-job religion. Helping the 9/11 attackers would have been SOP. These folks have been financing suicide bombers against Israel for decades. What's the difference ?