More than two million Muslims from around the world are expected to descend on the Saudi city of Mecca next month for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. But the hashtag Boycott-Hajj has taken off on Twitter.
But a growing number of Muslims, including Australians, are turning their backs on what is one of the central ‘pillars of Islam’ and are calling for a boycott of the event.
It's the holiest site in the Muslim world.
Each year more than two million Muslims travel to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Making the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in a life time, is considered a religious obligation for all financially-able Muslims.
But this year there are calls for a boycott from activists representing all strands of the Muslim faith.
It was the war in Yemen that led prominent Sunni Muslim clerics, like the Grand Mufti of Libya, to first call for Muslims around the world to Boycott Hajj.
The Sunni-led Saudi government is the lead actor in the international coalition fighting in Yemen's civil war.
The UN has described the situation as the biggest man-made humanitarian crisis in the world.
