An Iraqi pilgrim rests outside the Grand Mosque in Makkah. Women make up nearly 50 percent of all hajis. (AN photo by Khidr Al-Zahrani)

MAKKAH, 17 December 2007 — They are here in large numbers, praying alongside men in the Grand Mosque. They frequently burst into tears, and keep looking for an opportunity to kiss Hajr Al-Aswad or the Black Stone. They are also adept at striking up spontaneous conversations with their co-religionists from other countries.

At times, in the absence of a common language, they communicate through gestures. They laugh and cry and sympathize and hug each other. They spread cheer and are clearly overwhelmed by the uniqueness of the event. They are the women who make up nearly 50 percent of all hajis. “We heard that there are more than a billion followers of our religion, but we never realized that they came from so many countries and so many cultures,” said Samira Ghazi from Aligarh, India. “I am simply amazed and am very happy.”

Many of the women that Arab News spoke to were eager to have their say on the misery in today’s world. “We know Islam is under attack and that’s why, on the plains of Arafat on Tuesday (Dec. 18), I’m going to pray for peace for all humanity,” said Rana Asghar Hussain from Toronto.

She felt there was no room for extremism. “If Islam were about extremism, we would not have this many people in our fold,” she continued. “This is proof of the fact that we are followers of a liberal religion. Its emphasis is on the emancipation of humanity. We should remove the word ‘hate’ from our lexicon.”

As Rana Hussain understands it and practices it, Islam is all about love and compassion; the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the supreme example. She observed that there was a lot of misunderstanding among non-Muslims about how women are treated in Islam.

“We feel happy in Islam and we have no problems,” she explained. “The problem is we have not been able to explain this to non-Muslims who confuse certain abhorrent cultural aspects with religious edicts,” she added.

The women pilgrims don’t hesitate to speak out with indignation about how they have seen their faith and their role in it being misrepresented. Sumaya Latifa from Johannesburg believes that the West is prejudiced against Islam and that “whatever you do, they will continue to attack your principles and they will continue to generalize things.”

However, she added that during Haj she would pray for the unity of Muslims and peace for all humanity. “I am angry when people attack us on the basis of what we wear. They draw wrong conclusions and assume that we, the women, are mistreated,” Latifa said.

“We never try to forget our roots or who we are and where we come from. That probably rankles some non-Muslims because they think we are still living in the Middle Ages. They don’t realize that we love this lifestyle. We will go to any length to preserve our culture.” But she agreed that a huge effort was required to inform non-Muslims of “our life in a positive way.”

Muslims have not done a good job of projecting the values of Islam, according to Fatema M. of Amman, Jordan, who argued that there is the added complication of so many voices. “This naturally confuses non-Muslims and it’s a fact that the views of the extremist elements are magnified,” she asserted. “The voices of the moderate elements in our religion are either drowned out or conveniently ignored.”

“Our first reaction under attack is to turn inward,” said Nadia Rehman, a teacher from Mauritius. “As a result, those who attack us assume that we have something to hide. We need not be apologetic. We should be more forthcoming explaining our point of view to the world at large. Gradually, they will realize that Islam is just not about fanaticism. It is a whole way of life — where men and women are treated equally.”