A group of Australian Muslims has been accused of a sectarian attack on an American group during this year's Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Americans, who are Shiite Muslims from Detroit, claim they were assaulted and threatened by a group of Lebanese-Australian Sunni Muslim men at a pilgrim campground in Mina, near Mecca.The Detroit Free Press reported that one of the American Muslims was strangled until his face turned blue and that women in the group were threatened with rape, according to witnesses to the assault that they say took place on October 16.
According to American Shiite cleric Mothafar al-Qazwini, the group was confronted by as many as 200 men they later learned to be Australian Salafis. Qazwini said one of the Australians asked one of the Americans if he was Shiite. "He responded 'yes'. He was immediately attacked by three men, one grabbing him in a choke hold, the others punching him in the face," Qazwini said.
Qazwini alleged that after the initial attack some of the Salafis ran to the women's tents, telling them "if they do not leave in 15 minutes, they will rape them all."
The American group was led by Mr Qazwini's uncle, Sayyid Hassan al-Qazwini, imam of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, the largest mosque in North America.
An official from the center declined to comment on the alleged incident until the imam returns home later this week. But the Australian Muslims took to Facebook to deny the claims, saying that the American Shiites who started the trouble.
One Australian Facebook post said "this is nonsense ... the incident happened in my camp ... the [Shiites] came insulting the sahaba [the companions of the Prophet Muhammad]. My tent was right by the tent of the [Shiite] guys who got beat up ... not (sic) it shouldn't have happened but the whole incident was instigated by them and no-one said anything near what is being claimed here."
The post added, "BTW, the police were not laughing ... there is a lot of zulm [oppression] in KSA [the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] including against [Shiites], but this story is just idiotic."