The pilgrimage that brings more than 2 million Muslims to Mecca every year tends to make them more religiously observant and also more tolerant, a huge study of Pakistani pilgrims suggests.

Muslims who undertake the hajj "return with more positive views towards people from other countries," are more likely to say "that people of different religions are equal," and are twice as likely as other religious Muslims to condemn Osama bin Laden, the study found...

...while most spent the day praying and reading Islam's holy book, the Quran, thousands -- mostly Iranians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Bahrainis -- held a rally inside their tents to denounce the United States and Israel.

Called the "disavowal of pagans ceremony," the Iranian-sponsored, anti-U.S. protest is held annually at the hajj, bringing a whiff of politics into what is otherwise an entirely religious event.

Saudi Arabia warned before the start of the pilgrimage that it would not tolerate any anti-U.S. demonstrations, but the rally was apparently permitted because it stayed inside the tents...