"Inside Mecca" is a documentary produced by National Geographic in 2003 by
Anisa Mehdi, which shows us the annual event of pilgrimage to Mecca. As Mecca is a birthplace of prophet Muhammad and a place where the House of Lord Kaaba is located it is considered as the center of Islam religion and sacred place. Every Muslim who truly believe in God want to visit Mecca to make a pilgrimage, which is in Arabic Hajj. This is because Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which is five duties expected from Muslims. If a Muslim has a good health and financial opportunity to make Hajj, then he is obligated to do so at least for one time during his or her life. The prophet Muhammad had done the
pilgrimage to Mecca, but it is believed that it was practiced by many people before the origin of Islam. The documentary illustrates step by step procedure of Hajj so that viewers could get an appropriate vision and understanding of the pilgrimage and idea of Islam itself. Although it is believed that during Hajj people should all be treated in the same way and not discriminate against each other, this review will argue that sometimes people can feel uncomfortable during Hajj because their nationalities and ethnicities are rare (unusual) among Muslims. However, despite this people try to be tolerant of each other and help their "brothers" and "sisters." To make viewers feel the whole importance of the Hajj the documentary narrates us the stories of three people with absolutely different backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities and social status but with a similar vision of life and the same faith. These are Fidelma O'Leary from Texas, Khalil from South Africa and Ishmael from Malaysia. The documentary shows us how Hajj of these people was different from each other and similar at the same time. The DIfference in their journey starts from the moment they left their homes, as a police escort gets Ishmael and his wife straight to the plain, while Khalil does
not have such a safe journey and he has to take a public bus. In addition, the vivid difference in acceptance by other Muslims can be noticed before the stoning of the satan ritual when all pilgrims stopped to rest in Minna. Here we
see that Khalil was not treated the same as other South African pilgrims for the reason his skin color is black and this was quite painful for him to see this condition happening during the Hajj. He says: "We are here always in one community not looking to the color and not looking to the rest or whether you are rich or you're poor". This situation slightly had shaken his vision of brotherhood among Muslims. So, Halil then joined up with another group from Malawi.
In the same manner, Fidelma was an object of attention for other pilgrims in Minna,because it was unusual for people to see a woman with a European appearance to be Muslim. We can notice that she catches the eye of many people. Fidelma says that most of the women in her group and even those who were strangers to her were trying to tell her what it is like to be a Muslim and asked her whether she is a Muslim or not. She says: "I think they forgot for a moment that you can only be here if you are Mulsim." So this was not pleasant for Fidelma as people had a prejudice regarding just because she had
another ethnicity. Also, going back to Ishamel it can be seen that his Hajj was different in a way that he has better services. Even though Hajj emphasizes the importance of being equal before God there is no prohibition on comfort as long as a pilgrim can pay for it. Accommodation varies from tent to tent so that all-inclusive economy packages start from around 2500 dollars.
As the movie goes on it can be seen that eventually, Muslim people are tolerant
and quite friendly. For example, one North African man found a tent for Fidelma and other men helped her with the collection of stones so that she could collect the right quantity of stones for stoning ritual. Similarly, when Khalil felt uncomfortable in his tent among South Africans, Malawi pilgrims were friendly with him and accepted him. Moving to the quality of the movie, I particularly liked the way different sounds and music were used for each scene. For example, when Muslims were praying, hearing the prayer was bewitching, or when pilgrims were doing shopping, cheerful music in the background made viewers feel that Hajj could also be fascinating. Also, I noticed that particularly the most significant moments of Hajj were filmed. By showing the scene when all the pilgrims were praying on the plane Arafat and asking God to forgive them I even started to cry because I could feel all the pain and other emotions of people. So, I believe
the fact that the movie could touch the hearts of viewers means that it succeeded.
Review of Inside Mecca
