Pilgramge

I found this article just looking around online. http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/a-millers-tale-a-widows-tale-a-beggars-tale/#more-549

It talks about the pilgramge made each year by Shiite muslims to Karbala in commemoration of Muhammeds grandsons death 1300 years ago. I found this interesting a number of different levels It says that millions of Muslims make this journey every year and this was wirtten in 2009. I have to think prior to the war in Iraq that the numbers were even larger. I think that this story is important because obviously pilgramges like this one and the one in Saudi Arabia are attended by Muslims from all over the world. This obviously has a dramatic effect on the economies of these countries due to the influx of people. It would be interesting to dig deeper into how important religious history and hisrtory in general plays a part of countries economy.