Around midday, the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest shrine, was packed with pilgrims performing the Tawaf al-Widaa, or the “farewell circling” of the Kaaba — walking seven times around the cubical structure while praying and reading the Quran, Islam’s holy book.

Many of the nearly 3 million pilgrims came by bus or on foot from the nearby plain of Mina, where they had completed the ritual known as the stoning of the devil earlier in the day. Others sat on mats along the three-mile route, reciting passages from the Quran while waiting for the crowds to ease.

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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.

“People become more orthodox yet more tolerant,” one of the study’s authors, Asim Ijaz Khwaja of Harvard University, said of hajjis — those who make the pilgrimage.

He described the study’s findings Monday, as this year’s annual pilgrimage reached its climax, the symbolic stoning of the devil on the festival of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday that traditionally marks the end of the hajj.

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (AP) Creating a sea of white robes, nearly 3 million Muslims converged on a rocky desert hill outside Mecca on Sunday to perform the ritual of forgiveness marking the climax of the annual hajj.

Chants of “at thy service, my God, at thy service,” reverberated through the valley as the pilgrims stood to pray for God’s forgiveness in the most spiritual moment of the entire pilgrimage.