Riz Khan, a former senior anchor at CNN International who is now on the board of directors of Image World Media Inc., has delivered award-winning coverage from the Hajj and Mecca since 1998. These reflections on his experience as a journalist and a pilgrim were written during the 2001 Hajj.

Impact of pilgrimage ripples far beyond Saudi desert

Crowds of pilgrims perform the Hajj

Muslims come in all shapes and sizes. They're not just the swarthy, dark, bearded men carrying guns -- an image that seems to typify Western stereotypes.

When CNN first covered the Hajj in April 1998, it was watched avidly across the globe, including the United States. The huge amount of feedback was remarkable in itself, but it also focused largely on people's surprise at learning about the Muslim pilgrimage and what it involves. The fact that the coverage didn't involve religious strife, social violence or outright terrorism pleased Muslims, and perhaps changed negative opinions that some non- Muslims held.

The importance of education can't be put into words. Education has an effect beyond just providing facts and figures. It helps to shape opinion and beliefs based on accurate information, not old prejudices and unfortunate stereotypes. The Hajj itself is supposed to be an education. Mixing so many people (more than 2 million) in such a small space for nearly a week, the pilgrimage brings the world to those who perhaps have never before been anywhere outside their own domestic environment.

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A Muslim is expected to do the pilgrimage at least once, if physically and financially able, so many of the faithful make it their lifetime goal. In fact, in some small, poor villages in Asia and Africa, the community pools its meagre resources together so that at least one respected elder can go to Mecca to visit the heart of Islam. That person is considered a sage upon his return -- someone who, following his brush with God, can make wise decisions on behalf of the village. Having been exposed to the wide range of Muslims from all corners of the world, that Hajji, as the successful pilgrim is known, experiences a global variety unavailable elsewhere. The pilgrim returns to the village with remarkable tales.

Pilgrims of many different origins intermingle during the Hajj

Mecca -- or Makkah, to use the old name that has been reinstated -- is surprisingly modern for a former stopover for camel caravans. There are high-rise hotels throwing their shadows across the shops and houses. Modern cars wind through the narrow, twisted and extremely congested (during the Hajj) roads. Villagers from overseas who've otherwise rarely seen a car are confronted by elevators and escalators and electronic vending machines. Surprise sits unmasked in their eyes. Many of the pilgrims are elderly, having saved for most of their lives to achieve their spiritual mission. They are often the happiest, knowing they've reached the twilight of their lives and yet managed to come to this holy place to wash their sins away with divine blessings.

Beyond the spiritual joy, the experience of going through the physical endurance of trekking backward and forward in the desert heat, and battling the human congestion at the Great Mosque in Mecca's center, is a sure way to learn about patience, forgiveness, humility ... and humanity. It shows a conservative Muslim how the more liberal Muslim lives and thinks. It shows a "modernised" Muslim how devout a more "traditional" Muslim can be. It may sound strange, but one of the warmest greetings a pilgrim can give a fellow Muslim at the Hajj is, "May God accept your pilgrimage." But then, God doesn't see shapes and sizes.