How did this slip past AP’s PC filters? Deadly Events Tied to Islamic Ceremonies. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

* Aug. 31, 2005: At least 648 Shiite worshippers taking part in annual commemoration of a saint’s death are killed in a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad, with many trampled or tumbling into the Tigris River.

* March 10, 2005: A suicide bomber blows himself up at a Shiite mosque during a funeral in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 100.

* Dec. 19, 2004: Car bombs tore through a Najaf funeral procession and Karbala’s main bus station, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120 in the two Shiite holy cities.

* March 2, 2004: Coordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives strike Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad, killing at least 181 and wounding 573.

* Feb. 1 2004: 251 Muslim pilgrims killed in stampede in Saudi Arabian city of Mina during the stoning ritual at the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

* Aug. 29, 2003: A car bomb explodes outside mosque in Najaf, killing more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. Although officials never gave a final death toll, there were suspicions it may have been higher.

* July 4, 2003: Gunmen in the Pakistani city of Quetta storm a Shiite Muslim mosque packed with prayer worshippers, killing about 50 and wounding hundreds.

* March 5, 2001: 35 hajj pilgrims killed in stampede during stoning of the devil ritual in Mina.

* April 9, 1998: Some 180 pilgrims trampled to death when panic erupted after several fell off an overpass during the stoning of the devil ritual in Mina.

* April 15, 1997: Fires driven by high winds tore through a sprawling, overcrowded tent city at Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500.

* May 23, 1994: 270 pilgrims killed in a stampede in Saudi Arabia’s holiest city, Mecca, as worshippers surged toward a cavern for the symbolic ritual of “stoning the devil.”

* July 9, 1990: 1,426 pilgrims killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca. It is the worst hajj-related tragedy.

* July 31, 1987: 402 people, mostly Iranian pilgrims, killed and 649 wounded in the Saudi city of Mecca when security forces clash with Iranians staging an anti-U.S. demonstration.

* Aug. 3, 1980: 301 people killed when a Pakistani jetliner carrying hajj pilgrims catches fire soon after takeoff from Jiddah to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and breaks apart after an emergency landing.