“The Arab world will always be a religious place,” says film director Haifaa Al-Mansour, but “it’s important not to see ourselves as us against the world. It’s more of us with the world.” More →

September 23, 2013

This year, almost three million Muslims are making the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It’s considered one of the five fundamental obligations of Islam. An estimated 15,000 Muslims from the U.S. traveled last year, and considerably more were expected this year. Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia has been on many hajjes. He went again this year and agreed to discuss the journey. More →

December 29, 2006

“Home from the Hajj,” is the last chapter in our story of one man’s journal of faith. In April, almost two million Muslims converged on Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage. One of this year’s pilgrims is Abdul Alim Mubarak from Maplewood, New Jersey. We first met him as he prepared for this, his first hajj. Now, our correspondent Anisa Mehdi visits the Mubaraks back home. More →

July 10, 1998

Previously, we told the story of Abdul Alim Mubarak, a Muslim, a CNN videotape editor, who lives in New Jersey, as he said good-bye to his family and took off for Saudi Arabia on his first religious pilgrimage, the hajj. Now, we have the story of Mubarak’s hajj, reported by our correspondent Anisa Mehdi, who just returned from Saudi Arabia herself. More →

April 17, 1998

On April 5, Muslims around the world will begin observing events associated with the annual hajj, one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith. Millions are converging on Mecca, located near the west coast of Saudi Arabia. Anisa Mehdi accompanies one American pilgrim as he says good-bye to his family and heads off to Mecca for the first time.
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March 27, 1998

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Loudoun County, Virginia, outside Washington, DC, is creating controversy with its plan for a new campus. More →

February 20, 1998