The Hajj and other religious practices

I don't know about you, but certain practices of religions seem quite
primitive to me. In this respect I find the Hajj of Muslims to Mecca to be
quite ridiculous. Mohammed the originator of Islam obviously copied many
things from Judaism, which he learnt about while traveling the trade routes
and meeting Jews en route and then staying in Medina, which actually was a
mainly Jewish city (Medina means "state" in Hebrew). The idea of a Holy City
and a pilgrimage to it and prayers facing towards it obviously came from
Judaism's focus on Jerusalem, that was in practice for thousands of years
before Mohammed's time.
But some aspects of the Hajj seem far removed from the complete monotheism
supposed to represent Islam. For example, this focus on the Kaba, a large
black cube at the center of the main mosque in Mecca, seems almost idolatrous.
It supposedly contains a large black stone composed of basalt, that is not
native to Arabia. Noone knows how it got there, but apparently it was moved
there and was an object of pagan worship long before Mohammed. Just as with
other religious founders, he simply adopted what was popular. Also, the
stoning of the "devil" which is another of the acts required of the Haji is a
quite primitive action. Of course, the believers will say that all of this is
allegorical, but it seems quite literal to me. Every year hundreds of
pilgrims get killed in stampedes and accidents that are inevitable when
there are ca. 2 million people milling around in a confined area. Is it worth
it?
Islam is a religion that emphasizes "submission," so one does it and does not
ask questions. This is similar to the wearing of the veil, the hijab, by
Muslim women. Actually, according to a program I saw produced by a
British Muslim woman, who does not wear the hijab, this practice is not
mentioned in the Koran, but has become traditional for Muslim women. In
Iran the age of female puberty is now considered to be 9 years old, and
girls of that age are required to wear a white hijab. Even she agreed this
was ridiculous, and she went with a women's group to an Ayatollah in Qom,
who was liberal enough to agree that it should not be mandatory and should
be required only when the girl menstruates for the first time. But, he is
probably too liberal for the ruling Ayatollahs. Nevertheless the wearing of
the hijab has caused significant political upheavals in both secular France
and Turkey, where it is banned in certain situations (in schools and
Government offices).
Certainly Christianity and Judaism have some primitive practices. All the
sightings of images of the Virgin Mary and the subsequent crowd hysteria to
see it is very primitive. The whole idea of Lourdes and its healing
properties is equally superstitious. And then there's the whole concept of
nuns and monks, and priestly celibacy, very unnatural.
Finally, for really primitive practices of Judaism, I love the circling of a
live chicken over the head to take away the evil spirits (a scape-chicken)
and the shaking of the lulav and etrog and the four plant species during
Succoth.
Its strange how these primitive folk practices persist in what are supposed
to be sophisticated systems of religious belief.