Destruction - that's not Islam, says 'Post' employee on haj pilgrimage

On ordinary days, tall, lanky, bespectacled Raed Abu-Shamsieh, 32, quietly and efficiently maintains The Jerusalem Post building in the capital, doing everything from seeing to broken chairs to fine-tuning the air-conditioning. Right now, however, his attentions are elsewhere: realizing a dream by making the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

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"What was amazing was to see all the people. They came from all over the world - five or six million. You see black people, white people. What you don't see are the people of Saudi Arabia, who are all abroad.

"It makes you start thinking differently. Seeing the people visiting the house of the Prophet, you think how Allah created all the different people, and how he created everything for the people."

Abu-Shamsieh said that, in his view, "Islam is not like it was. People have become far from the true Islam. Now they only think about money and worldly goods. [Believing Muslims] didn't used to think like that. And [authentic] Islam is very different from blowing oneself up, and from all the stuff happening in Iraq. Destruction - that's not Islam."

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