By
Mazen Ghazi & Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondents
BAGHDAD,
December 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Young Iraqis make up the
majority of Iraqi pilgrims traveling to Makkah this year to perform
hajj, after restrictions were lifted that allowed only the elderly to
perform the annual Islamic ritual.
"Some
27,500 Iraqi pilgrims were selected by ballot to perform hajj this year,
a large majority of whom are young men and women," Mohamed Adnan of
the Iraqi Sunni Waqf authority told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, December
28.
This
year, some 38,000 Iraqis applied for the spiritual journey.
The
Sunni official said that priority was given in the ballot to selecting
old people to perform the Islamic ritual.
"But
the results showed that large numbers of young Iraqis were among the
hajj winners."
He
stressed that among the Iraqi pilgrims were also 1,500 relatives to
victims of the bloody Shiite stampede in last September.
Up
to 1,005 Shiites were killed in a stampede as they marched to
Al-Kadhimiya mosque in Baghdad 's Al-Kadhimiya district to
commemorate the death of the seventh imam, Musa Al-Kadhim, a
revered religious figure among Shiites.
Many
of the dead drowned after falling off the Al-Aaimmah bridge into the
river in a surge of panic triggered by rumors that suicide bombers were
in the crowd.
Hajj
is
meant
to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith and to
commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.
Joyful
After
selection to perform hajj, many young Iraqi pilgrims expressed their joy
and happiness.
"Under
the former Iraqi regime, only the elderly were allowed to perform
hajj," Hussein Majeed told IOL.
"But
this year, pilgrims were selected by ballot, allowing many young Iraqis
to perform the Islamic ritual."
Omar
Mo'aed, 32, agreed.
"The
high numbers of young Iraqis applying to perform hajj this year came
after removing restrictions placed by the deposed Iraqi regime on
performing the Islamic ritual."
He
stressed that the government subsidies for hajj were also instrumental
in encouraging large numbers of young Iraqis to apply for hajj.
He,
however, said that the government subsidies were only part of a
propagation campaign to win the country's parliamentary elections, held
on Dec. 15.
The
Iraqi government of Ibrahim Jaafari announced that it would pay some
$1100 as subsidies per Iraqi pilgrim.
Hajj
costs range this year between $1600 for land travel to Makkah, while it
costs $1700 for air flights.
In
the past two years, Hajj costs ranged between $1000 to 1200 per person,
without any government subsidies.
Encouraging
Iraqis to apply for hajj, the Iraqi hajj-organizing companies proposed
to allow Iraqis to pay on installment for hajj.
"The
move was to help the low-income Iraqis to perform the Islamic
ritual," Al-Baneya firm, a hajj-organizing company, told IOL.
