Western newspapers watched the Hajj primarily out of sanitary self-interest against cholera.

Evidence

We are very glad to announce that the annual pilgrimage to Mecca has gone off this year with remarkable success. “Glad to announce!” we hear good Mrs. Grundy ejaculate; “why should a Christian newspaper rejoice over the happy conduct and termination of the rites and ceremonies of Mahound?” But the estimable lady in question ought to understand that this great custom of the Moslem world is no longer a matter of indifference to ourselves. The East and the West are nowadays so closely knit together by commerce and intercourse that, upon sanitary grounds alone, we have every reason to watch with the utmost interest the accounts form the holy cities of Arabia. Twice has Europe received the plague of cholera from the crowds that throng from all parts of the eastern world to Mecca and Medina. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 34