This year's hajj to Mecca went off without incident

Loory: The largest religious gathering in the world, by far, is the annual hajj to Mecca carried out by the world’s Muslims. Last week over 3 million attended the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it is commanded in the Koran to make the hajj at least once in a lifetime. This year the hajj went off without incident but in the past there has been mayhem. In 2006, more than 300 were stoned to death. There has been controversy this year over the hajj. The government of Saudi Arabia refused to allow several hundred residents of the Gaza Strip to attend because Hamas, the anti-Israeli militant group that controls the area, sponsored their visas. Is the hajj, now, an exercise in peaceful coexistence, or is there more political attachment to it?