It was the worst disaster to strike Mecca in modern times. But violent death has attended three out of the last four pilgrimages. That has deeply embarrassed Saudi King Fahd, whose titles include “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.” The latest deaths, he said, were “God’s will … Had they not died there they would have died elsewhere and at the same predestined moment.” The Saudis have spent $15 billion since the mid-’80s on facilities for pilgrims. But Iran, long angered by the Saudi royal family’s U.S. ties, quickly renewed its call for a Pan-Islamic body to administer the holy sites. As relatives searched for the missing, the dead were quickly buried in unmarked graves.
