Nathan Bloom - Outside Reading #1

I recently read an article about the Pilgrimage practices of Muslims. It was for my paper for this class but when I read it and learned about the practice of Hajj it helped me to understand some of the significance that Mecca holds and how it has become a sacred place as we have discussed in class. I find that making pilgrimage a mandatory aspect of ones religion sort of defeats the purpose. You cannot pilgrimage to put a check in a box. It has to come from the heart and you have to be ready to pilgrimage and accepting of what you learn. I have nothing against the Islamic faith and I know there are aspects of Christianity that Muslims surely disagree with and I also understand that Hajj is something that has been done for centuries so to change now would alter their entire religion, but at the same time you simply cannot force pilgrimage, it must happen by itself.