Muslim pilgrims saddened by end of hajj
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After five days of exhaustion and hardships, Muslim pilgrims were saddened to see the annual hajj come to a close Friday, ending what for many is a spiritual high point of their lives.
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JEDDAH, 23 December 2004 - A final warning has been issued to Umrah overstayers to leave the country before the advent of Haj next month.
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MECCA, Saudi Arabia  - The annual haj pilgrimage began in Mecca on Monday when hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims put on white clothes, packed their bags and left for a tented encampment on the edge of the holy city.
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MENA, Saudi Arabia  - More than two million Muslim  pilgrims arrived in the tented city of Mena Tuesday, the first  day of a haj pilgrimage marked by grief over the Asian tsunami  disaster and security fears.
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ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia  - Muslim pilgrims poured on to the plain of Arafat east of Mecca on Tuesday as the sun rose over the rocky hills for the day marking the climax of the annual haj pilgrimage.
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MENA, Saudi Arabia  - Haj pilgrims pelted stones  at symbols of the devil on Friday, and many said they were  targeting President Bush and other world leaders seen as  oppressing Muslims.
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Beating their chests in grief and chanting anti-government slogans, thousands of Shiite Muslims on Monday mourned victims of a suicide attack on a Pakistan mosque that killed four people, the latest in a string of apparently sectarian assaults.
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MINA, Saudi Arabia  - Saudi police were on alert on Friday as millions of Muslims were completing one of the last rituals of the annual haj pilgrimage, testing new crowd control arrangements at an accident spot on the haj itinerary.
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ZANZIBAR, Tanzania  - It's the eve of Ramadan, the  holy month for Muslims, but Hamedi says he will not set foot in  a mosque for the whole fasting period, or at any other time for  that matter.
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Millions of Muslims prayed together for peace and harmony on a riverbank near the Bangladeshi capital on Sunday, concluding an annual assembly that is considered one of the world&#39;s largest Islamic gatherings.
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Shiite fighters left the holiest shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Friday and began turning in their weapons, after tens of thousands of pilgrims celebrated a peace agreement that ended a bloody rebellion.
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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia  - Grief swept through the  airport of this tsunami-hit Indonesian city overnight when  hundreds of Acehnese Muslims returned from the annual Haj  pilgrimage to learn they had lost children, parents and homes  to the waves.
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TONGI, Dec 5 (UNB): Millions of hands were raised in prayer for peace and well-being at this trying time as a three-day world congregation of Muslim devotees concluded here Sunday with Akheri Munajat.
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MECCA, Saudi Arabia  - Muslim pilgrims performed  final rites of the haj on Saturday, with many praising its  safety following fears of stampedes or al Qaeda strikes.
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ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia  - Muslim pilgrims spent the day in prayer on the plain of Arafat near Mecca on Tuesday, marking the climax of this season's haj pilgrimage where Iranian pilgrims managed to protest against America.
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NAJAF, Iraq  For centuries, the world&#39;s 120 million Shiite Muslims have revered the gold-domed mosque of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib named after the slain cousin and son-in-law of Islam&#39;s prophet Muhammad as a place of pilgrimage.
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NAJAF, Iraq - Thousands of pilgrims streamed into the Imam Ali Shrine on Friday and filed out mixed with militants who had been holed up inside, leaving the holy site nearly empty after Iraq's top Shiite cleric brokered a peace deal to end three weeks of fighting in this holy city.    Hours earlier, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a statement broadcast over the shrine's loudspeakers, ordering his fighters to lay down their arms and leave Najaf and neighboring Kufa...