, November 16, Asia-Plus — The first group of Tajik pilgrims will fly to
Saudi Arabia
on November 27, Abdusalom Rajabov, the head of the hajj and pilgrimage department at the main directorate for religious affairs (DRA) of the Ministry of Culture (MoC) said.
According to him, the
Saudi Arabia
government this year allotted
Tajikistan
a quota of 5,000 pilgrims.
“At first, the
Saudi Arabia
has allotted use the quota of 4,000 pilgrims,” said the DRA official, “We have asked them to grant quota for another 1,900 pilgrims, but they agreed to increase the quota only by
1,000.”
However, 6,500 Tajik Muslims wanting to make Hajj (the holy journey to
Mecca
) have to date been registered with the DRA, and they have already deposited money pad for the journey, Rajabov said.
Those who will not be able to make Hajj this year will have their money back or be registered for making the holy journey next year, he said.
Rajabov noted reminded that this year, Hajj will come for Tajik Muslims to $2,580.
Tajikistan
has a population of 7 million and some 97 percent of citizens consider themselves Muslims.
The MoC main directorate for religious affairs controls participation in the Hajj, and the government continues to require air travel for the Hajj.
Tajik pilgrims fly to
Saudi Arabia
from both
Dushanbe
and Khujand.
According to US International Religious Freedom Report 2007, the DRA in 2007 apparently lifted the previous quota limit of 3,500 citizen hajjis; as a result, 4,622 citizens participated in the Hajj in 2007, compared with
3,450 in
2006 and
4,072 in
2005, out of the overall quota of 6,000 hajjis that the Saudis allocated.
We will recall that according to the TajikCommittee for Religous Affairs, there were no restrictions on the number of pilgrims in the previous Hajj and anyone over the age of 18 who wished might make the journey.
