Worst. Hajj. Ever.

Today at least 717 Muslim pilgrims have been killed and around 860 have been injured during a stampede at the Mina valley just outside Mecca, Saudi Arabia where they were gathering as part of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. This is the worst loss of life during Hajj since a similar stampede claimed the lives of 1,426 pilgrims in 1994 and the death toll may yet rise to exceed that total.

This comes on Eid al-Adha which is the second most important festival in Islam. Although only Muslims celebrate it on such a large scale Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) marks an event that should be familiar to all Jews, Christians and Muslims - what is sometimes referred to as "The Binding of Isaac" as told in the book of Genesis.

In the story God instructs Abraham to to take his son Isaac to a mountain and kill him in sacrifice to show his devotion to God. This obviously prompts Abraham to have something of a crisis of faith and he spends a lot of time on the mountain trying to decide whether his devotion to God is greater then his devotion to his son. Eventually Abraham decides to go ahead with the sacrifice but just as he is about to do the deed God appears to him - in the form of a bush trapping a ram - and tells him to sacrifice the ram instead because he has already proved his devotion to God by showing that he is prepared to kill his son.

Jews believe that this all occurred on what is now known as the Temple Mount/Al Asqa site in Jerusalem. To honour Abraham's commitment to God the first Jewish Temple was built there - hence the term "Temple Mount." Some Christian's agree with this while other claim that it actually occurred on Mount Calvary where Jesus was crucified - an act they believe was God reciprocating Abraham's devotion by sacrificing his own son - Jesus - to say humans from their sins.

However Muslims believe that this all occurred in the Mina valley which conveniently stands between Mecca where the Prophet Muhammad was born and Mount Arafat where Muhammad delivered his last sermon at the end of the first Hajj.

Muslims also believe that while Abraham was wrestling with his faith the Devil appeared and urged him to defy God by not killing his son. Some 2,500 years before his birth the Prophet Muhammad is said to have also appeared and cast the devil away by pelting him with stones. I though think that is artistic license helping to personify Abraham's internal struggle for the audience.

As part of the Hajj pilgrimage Muslims mark this casting out of the Devil by throwing rocks at three pillars in the Mina valley. It is at this point that today's stampede occurred.

This latest tragedy comes just two weeks after 118 Muslim pilgrims were killed and 394 injured when a crane operated by the Bin Laden construction company collapsed onto Mecca's Grand Mosque during a freak thunder storm of September 11th (11/9/15). This prompted something of a metaphysical crisis because certainly since 2010 Saudi Arabia has been using the terrorist tactics of Osama bin Laden to rebuild the Muslim world in its own image in order to consolidate the power of Saudi Arabia's ruling al-Saud family.

The crane collapse could have been an entirely random act. It could also have been the natural environment through the quantum field protesting the al-Saud's objection to action to prevent climate change. However it could also have been a sign from God and if it could be a sign from God it could also be a sign from the Devil impersonating God.

Therefore it is my suspicion that the al-Saud's intentionally caused today's stampede in order to trick Muslims into thinking that it was a sign from God that the crane collapse was a sign from the Devil and they should continue to be prepared to sacrifice their children for 'gods' cause. After all while we talk a lot about the fate of the Yezidi and the Druze at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) the overwhelming majority of people ISIL are slaughtering are Muslims and in Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen it is only Muslim who are being slaughtered.

If you think that sounds a bit wacky then if you've been following the recent developments in the "Baby Doe" case out of Boston, Massachusetts, US or the Nickcole Dykema case out of Brooksville, Florida, US you may have got the impression that certain bets were being taken on how long it would take the al-Sauds to blame the Bin Laden crane collapse on witchcraft. After all they do believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

In terms of the mechanics of causing a stampede when you have that many people all whipped up into a sort of religious delirium being crammed into a space that is far too small for them the challenge is normally to avoid a stampede. This type of event is actually very common amongst Indian Hindus because all it takes is one person to push, one person to slip or one person to panic.

However Saudi Arabia has indicated that it was poorly disciplined Shia pilgrims from Iran that caused the disaster. Iran has countered by accusing Sunni Saudi Arabia of closing three of five routes causing a bottle-neck at the cross-roads where the stampede began.

16:45 on 24/9/15 (UK date).