Saudi to steadily resume ‘umrah’ pilgrimage from October 4
Saudi Arabia will slowly but surely resume the year-spherical umrah pilgrimage for Muslims from October 4, the interior ministry said Tuesday, seven months just after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The kingdom had suspended the umrah in March and soon after scaled back the gross annual hajj in a blow to an incredible number of pilgrims all over the world amid fears that the coronavirus could spread to Islam’s holiest sites.
In the first level, “6,000 citizens and occupants within the kingdom will be permitted to perform the umrah each day from October 4”, the ministry explained in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Visitors from beyond your kingdom will be permitted from November 1, when umrah’s capacity might be raised to 20,000 pilgrims per day, the ministry added.
The umrah, which identifies the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca which can be undertaken at any time of year, usually attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe each year.
The ministry said umrah would be permitted to resume at full “pure capacity” once the threat of the pandemic is eliminated.
The decision to resume umrah was in response to the “aspirations of Muslims home and abroad” to execute the ritual and go to the holy sites, the ministry added.
The decision employs the kingdom organised the smallest hajj in modern history in overdue July, with only up to 10,000 Muslims allowed to be a part of total - a long way off from the 2 2.5 million who participated last year.
Health authorities said no coronavirus instances were reported in the holy sites through the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able- bodied Muslims at least one time in their lifetime.
Hajj pilgrims circled the sacred Kaaba - a cubic structure inside Mecca’s Grand Mosque towards which Muslims around the world pray - along socially distant paths.
The pilgrims were also subjected to regular temperature checks and necessary to get into mandatory quarantine following the ritual.
- ‘Double efforts’ -
King Salman, the kingdom’s 84-year-aged ruler, said keeping the hajj in the shadow of the pandemic needed “double work” by Saudi authorities.
The hajj and umrah pilgrimages certainly are a large logistical challenge, with colossal crowds cramming into relatively small holy sites, producing them susceptible to contagion.
The kingdom has sought to contain a spike in infections, that have now risen to more than 330,000 cases - the best in the Gulf - and over 4,500 deaths.
But Saudi Arabia in addition has reported a high fee of recoveries, which surpassed 312,000 on Tuesday.
The other day, Saudi Arabia partially lifted its suspension on international flights, half a year just after travel curbs were imposed as a result of pandemic.
Saudi Arabia’s custodianship of Mecca and Medina - Islam’s several holiest sites - sometimes appears as the kingdom’s most powerful way to obtain political legitimacy.
But a number of deadly disasters through the years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 worshippers, has prompted criticism of the Sunni kingdom’s administration of the hajj.
The holy sites are also an integral earnings earner for Saudi Arabia.
The pilgrimages typically cost thousands of dollars for worshippers, who sometimes save for years and endure extended waiting lists for an opportunity to attend.
De facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform plan seeks to decouple the economy of the kingdom - the world’s leading crude exporter - from oil dependency towards other resources of revenue, including spiritual tourism.
