A bad thing in a good place

I am a big fan of Modibo Keita Stadium. I went there for the marathon. I've gone there for basketball games. I've hiked past it on high. I've strolled by on the weekend with no plan at all, just to ask the guard if there's anything interesting scheduled in the next few days. I want to be a part of the life of my city.

Monday, there was a terrible tragedy at the stadium. After a religious ceremony to celebrate the birth and baptism of the prophet Mohamed, there was a stampede at the stadium exit and 36 people -- most of them women -- died. They were crushed underfoot by their friends and neighbors. I'm saddened and bewildered, as are many people here. To put it in perspective, that's more deaths than the Virginia Tech shooting, and in one of the country's most celebrated sports stadiums on an important national religious holiday.

No one can say for certain what caused the mad rush. Some reports say people were pressing forward to touch or get a glimpse of the imam who hosted the event. Other folks say the imam had already left, and it was a random panic as 25,000+ people pressed to leave through narrow exits at the same time. I don't know.

Oddly, at about the exact same time, I happened to be at another soccer field across town for another imam's celebration of the exact same holiday. As I left with the other guests, a bunch of young men formed a human chain to escort us to our cars. At the time, I remember thinking it was rather heavy handed, but now I appreciate their care.

Today, I was on my way to a non-related meeting downtown when we ran into a huge crowd spilling out from the mosque. A special prayer service had been held for the people killed on Monday. I was moved. As we headed into the building for our meeting, a huge commotion went up in the street. You could hear the rush of people, hooting and hollering. We went back down to see what was happening.

I saw 200-400 men sprinting down a busy market street en masse, as if a spontaneous road race riot had broken out. I asked a coworker what had happened. The same imam was leaving the mosque, and hundreds of people were running down the street after him, to get a glimpse or a touch.