A record 7,000 Chinese Muslim pilgrims from all over the country
attended the haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia last week, a sign of the
improvement in people's livelihoods, a senior Chinese religious
official said yesterday in Beijing.
During the 1950s-1980s, the Chinese Muslim Association every
year organized only a dozen Muslims to take part in the haj,
according to Guo Chengzhen, deputy director of the department in
charge of Muslim affairs with the State Administration for
Religious Affairs.
The number of organized Chinese pilgrims passed 260 in 1985,
then skyrocketed from 850 in 1990 to 2,000 in 1995.
Muslims attending the haj mainly come from eight provinces and
autonomous regions, namely Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia,
Shaanxi in the Northwest, North China's Inner Mongolia, Central
China's Henan and Southwest's Yunnan, said Guo in an interview with
China Daily.
The majority of Chinese Muslims reside in these regions, which
are economically less developed than the coastal areas. A Muslim
usually spends an average of 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) to complete a
religious mission to Mecca, which includes traveling and
accommodations costs, according to Guo.
China's growth and development in recent years has made it
affordable for people in these regions to attend the haj in Mecca,
said Guo.
The haj is the pilgrimage to Mecca and is the fifth of the "Five
Pillars of Islam" in Sunni Islam.
According to Islamic rules, every able-bodied Muslim who can
afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least
once in their lifetime.
About 2.5 million pilgrims from all over the world attended this
year's haj, which ended last Thursday.
A stampede last week claimed 362 lives, including five Chinese
pilgrims.
Besides the four previously reported Chinese Muslims from
Qinghai Province who were killed in the stampede, one more pilgrim
from Xinjiang was also found dead in the accident, according to
Guo.
The four Qinghai victims were members of the organized Chinese
pilgrim group, while the Xinjiang pilgrim visited the place by
himself.
According to Chinese religious regulations, the Chinese Muslim
Association is responsible for organizing Chinese Muslims to take
part in the haj.
"The organized pilgrim group enjoys better transportation and
accommodation facilities," said Guo, noting that the group also set
up an emergency-handling mechanism to guarantee their safety.
Starting from 1989, the Chinese Muslim Association used
chartered planes to transport Chinese Muslim from China to Saudi
Arabia, which saved both time and money for pilgrims.
The Chinese Muslim Association also employs some staff members
who are familiar with Arabic and Islamic customs to offer help to
group members. Some emergency-handling measures have been taken to
help group members deal with emergencies such as the stampede,
traffic accidents and terrorist activities.
Independent visits are believed to be inconvenient to both
pilgrims and the Saudi Arabia government, Guo said. "We want to
provide better service to pilgrims so as to attract more people to
join the organized group instead of doing it by themselves."
(China Daily January 19, 2006)
