Worshipers performing the prayer of al-Fajr at the Kaaba at the complex of the Great Mosque in Mecca. (AFP)
Riyadh:
Saudi Arabia will allow around 1,000 pilgrims living in the kingdom to practice hajj this year, a minister said on Tuesday after announcing that the ritual would be reduced due to the coronavirus.
“The number of pilgrims will be around 1,000, maybe less, maybe a little more,” Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten told reporters.
“The number will not be tens or hundreds of thousands” this year, he added.
The pilgrimage, planned for the end of July, will be limited to those under 65 and without chronic illness, said Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah.
Pilgrims will be tested for coronavirus before arriving in the holy city of Mecca and will be quarantined at home after the ritual, added Rabiah.
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it will be hosting a “very limited” hajj this year as it prepares to stem the largest coronavirus epidemic in the Gulf.
He said the ritual will be open to people of different nationalities already present in the kingdom.
The move marks the first time in modern Saudi Arabian history that Muslims outside the kingdom are banned from performing the hajj, which last year attracted 2.5 million pilgrims.
Benten did not specify how the pilgrims will be selected.
But he said the government would work with various diplomatic missions in the kingdom to select foreign pilgrims residing in Saudi Arabia who meet the health criteria.
Hajj – a staple for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lives – generally takes millions of pilgrims to congested religious sites and could be a major source of contagion.
The move comes as Saudi Arabia grapples with a significant spike in infections, which have now reached more than 161,000 cases – the highest in the Gulf – with more than 1,300 deaths.
But the decision to reduce this five-day event is fraught with political and economic dangers and comes after several Muslim countries have withdrawn from the ritual which is one of the main pillars of Islam.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
