A study published by researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) last month found that the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, makes pilgrims more peaceful and tolerant rather than fostering feelings of self-isolation.

After reviewing data from a 2006 survey to 1,600 Sunni pilgrims from Pakistan, researchers Asim Ijaz Khwaja of HKS, Michael R. Kremer of the Department of Economics, and David Clingingsmith of Case Western Reserve University, concluded that participation in the Hajj bolsters pilgrims’ observance of Islamic practices, including the five daily prayers and fasting, while decreasing their adherence to local customs, like the practice of dowry.

The study also found that the Hajj promotes “harmony among ethnic groups and Islamic sects and leads to more favorable attitudes toward women, including greater acceptance of female education and employment.”

And while the report recognizes that some observers have assumed that the pilgrimage serves to isolate Muslims from non-Muslims, the study concluded that, though the Hajj increases unity among Muslims, it doesn’t foster “antipathy toward non-Muslims.”

“So many Muslims getting together might change, in a negative way, their views [regarding] non-Muslims,” Clingingsmith said. “And I think that there’s sort of a view out there in the world that they might find an increased support for political Islam—in fact, we see the opposite of that,”

“That’s something the typical person might find surprising,” he added.

The researchers pointed to “exposure to and interaction with Hajjis from around the world” as the reason for increased tolerance.

After going on the pilgrimage twice, Na’eel A. Cajee ’10 said the study’s findings support his firsthand experiences.

He said the Hajj “is not just about tolerating the people next to you—it’s about having the differences but bonding.”

Though the two million pilgrims typically in attendance for the Hajj are logistically ordered by country, Cajee said the diverse backgrounds “weren’t obstacles.”

“I’d go into random tents—the American tents, the Indonesian tents, the South African tents—and it didn’t matter if they were poor or rich, people would invite me to eat,” he said.

The study’s authors echoed Cajee’s personal experiences.

“Social distance isn’t as large as you thought on Hajj, and maybe that’s the learning you come out with,” Khwaja said. “Once you think a Muslim European is good, then maybe all Europeans are, too. A famous example of this broader learning may have been Malcolm X and his letter from Hajj, [in which] he attributes rethinking his views on race to performing the Hajj.”

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.