Only a thousand worshipers living in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to make the grand pilgrimage to Mecca this year due to drastic measures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Saudi regime said on Tuesday.
Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten's announcement on Tuesday reduced the great Muslim ritual to its simplest form and made disappointments among the faithful, both inside and outside the kingdom. In fact, the decision closes the door of hajj to the faithful coming from abroad, a first in the modern history of Saudi Arabia.
"The number of pilgrims will be around a thousand, a little less, a little more," said Mohammad Benten at a press conference. "The number will not reach 10,000 or 100,000," he insisted. The pilgrimage planned for the end of July will also be limited to the faithful under the age of 65 and suffering from chronic illnesses, said the Minister of Health Tawfik al-Rabiah, during the same press conference.
What selection criteria?
Applicants for the pilgrimage will be tested to ensure that they are not infected with the virus before their arrival in the Holy City and will have to undergo domestic quarantine after the end of the ritual. The rules of hygiene and physical distance will be observed during the rites.
The Minister did not specify the criteria for selecting the persons who would be authorized to make the pilgrimage. He said the authorities would work closely with diplomatic missions in Riyadh to select these pilgrims.
On Monday, the authorities decided to maintain the pilgrimage with a "very limited number" of faithful, while the pandemic "continues to accelerate" in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Until then, Ryad maintained uncertainty around the holding of what constitutes one of the most important religious gatherings in the world.
The hajj, which attracted 2.5 million Muslims in 2019 according to official figures, is one of the five pillars of Islam. In case of high attendance, it can become a huge vector of contagion, with followers from around the world. Its management is regularly criticized during dramatic accidents. In 2015, a stampede claimed the lives of 2,300 pilgrims.
"The safest option"
Mohamad Azmi Abdul Hamid, a member of the Advisory Council of Islamic Organizations in Malaysia, believes that Muslim countries should have been consulted for a "collective decision", instead of having to submit to Ryad's decision. "It is time that (the holy cities of Medina and Mecca) be managed by an international body representing the Muslim countries," he said on Tuesday.
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But for their part, the World Islamic League, the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as well as Al Azhar, an institution of Sunni Islam based in Cairo, welcomed the Saudi decision.
For Umar Karim, visiting researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, "Saudi Arabia has chosen the safest option". "It allows him to save face in the Muslim world" and to be uncompromising on the health of pilgrims, he concluded.
The pandemic continues to progress in Saudi Arabia, the Arab country most affected by the Gulf. Authorities have officially identified more than 161,000 people infected, of whom 1,307 have died. To try to contain it, Saudi Arabia has since March suspended the small pilgrimage, the Umrah, which takes place all year in Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam, located in the west of the country.