|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CAIRO, Dec 11 (AFP) - A television quiz game with a pilgrimage to Mecca as the prize is jamming telephone lines in Egypt at the start of Ramadan.
Viewers are asked to telephone the answer to a question on Islam every evening after the breaking of the daytime Ramadan fast, a peak time for television.
The telephones of the French news agency AFP, whose numbers are close to those of the television station, never stop ringing for minutes afterwards as excited viewers misdial in their hurry to answer the question first.
Every Muslim able to afford it is supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime. From Egypt it costs from 3,000 pounds ($860) for a basic bus or boat trip, to 35,000 pounds (about $10,000) for a journey in style.
Quotas are applied by the religious authorities in Saudi Arabia in line with each country's population, and demand always far exceeds the number of visas available.
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
