The Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, is obligatory for all adult Muslims who are healthy and able to afford it. It is one of the five pillars (religious obligations) of Islam. The other four are prayer, fasting, charity and belief in Allah as God and Muhammad as prophet.
Muslims from the Netherlands usually book the pilgrimage through specialized travel agencies. They were sadly informed last week that the Saudi authorities were switching to a new platform at the last minute. The organization called Motawif is now the only platform on which pilgrims from Europe, America and Australia can book the trip.
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Muslims can Register until tonight 19.00 pm through the website of the Saudi government. But they are not sure of a place. A draw will ultimately determine who can travel to Mecca from 7 to 12 July this year.
‘Disappointment’
For Muslims who want to do the pilgrimage, the new rules are a huge disappointment. Abdelelah (43) thinks it’s a ‘pretty disappointment’. “I had already secured a spot and made a deposit at a travel agency,” he says. “I was also already busy with the preparations and I had arranged days off from work. It is very heavy news. Nobody expected or saw this coming. I don’t understand it at all.”
He has wanted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca for three years. The trip was delayed by two years of corona, but this year it really had to happen. It would be his first time. “I had already saved up for it. As soon as it was possible again, I wanted to go that way.”
But alas, his spot is gone. Still, Abdelelah has not given up hope. He has registered again via the new platform, but will he get a spot? “I don’t think so. There are so many people from all over the world who want to go. I was happy that I got a place through the travel agency.”
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About the new platform there is still a lot of uncertainty. For example, it is not known how many Muslims per country receive a ‘Hajj visa’, which is, among other things, a requirement for walking the pilgrimage. Also, travel agents do not know whether they will get the deposits back from the Saudi government.
“The financial consequences are very big,” says the owner of a travel agency specialized in organizing Mecca pilgrimages. He prefers to remain anonymous for fear of negative attention. “We’re going through a really tough time right now, and I don’t want to take any chances.”
Phone red hot
He says his phone has been red hot since last week’s news. All the customers who have booked the trip – almost seventy in his case – want to know if they will get their money back. The trip is not a bargain: to do the hajj you lost on average between 4500 and 7500 euros for corona – depending on the chosen luxury.
Prices for this year were still unclear, ‘but given the inflation, they could have been a lot higher’. The owner says he is working to pay everyone back. “We’re going to see how far we get. Otherwise I’ll have to borrow.”
“We’ve been standing still for three years now,” he continues. “We had been unable to do anything for two years during the corona crisis. We therefore hoped that this would be the year in which we could smooth everything out, but no. Two to three weeks before departure you will be told that it will not take place.”
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He is not the only travel agency in the Netherlands that is in sackcloth and ashes due to the new rules. Travel agency Mekka & Medina Reizen was also ‘completely surprised’ by the news. “This is not good for the travel agencies and the customers,” said director Abdellah. Since the news, he too has been overwhelmed by phone calls from customers. They wonder if they can go and – if so – how they will do the journey. “They now have to do everything themselves, without guidance,” he says. “If they go through us, they get a guide from start to finish.”
‘End exercise’
Abdellah says you can’t make the decision to move to a new platform ‘head over heels’. The owner of the other travel agency agrees. He wants to see whether the travel agencies in the Netherlands that offer the pilgrimages can unite. Because, he says: “If I can’t do this anymore, the end is practice.”
The good news is that the last hope is not quite gone. The Saudi minister responsible for the pilgrimage has been asked to postpone the new system until next year, it turns out from a letter held by the BBC. But it is not yet known whether this will also be followed.
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