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Hajj for many Iraqis, forced to survive on aid handouts, remains a far-fetched dream. (Reuters) |
BAGHDAD — Sulaiman Jalil and his wife have been saving for years to be able to afford the ultimate spiritual journey of hajj.
"We have been keeping money since 2001 to perform hajj but our dream was shattered when we were forced out of our home because of sectarian targeting," Jalil, 42, told IslamOnline.net.
"We had to spend all our money to survive since I became unemployed," he explained bitterly.
"Only God knows how hard we worked to raise the money but now everything has gone because of the US occupation that fueled violence in Iraq."
More than 30,000 Iraqis are performing hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, this year.
At least 80 percent of them will be travel to Saudi Arabia by land to cut on hajj expenses.
Kuwaiti authorities have pledged to offer all possible facilities and accommodation to Iraqis who will pass through their territory in their way to Saudi Arabia.
During Saddam Hussein regime, as few as 3000 people were allowed to enter Saudi Arabia to perform hajj.
"Iraqis never had a so great chance to travel to Makkah than now," notes Sheikh Abdullah Ahmed, a Baghdad religious leader.
"But the economic situation has worsened and as result the dream of thousands of Muslims will have to be delayed," he added.
"Unemployment countrywide has a direct effect on it, followed by displacement. People are too worried to survive with the little money they have and are forced to postpone their religious dreams and obligations."
Every able-bodied adult Muslim — who can financially afford the trip — must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.
"Some Iraqis are hardly making US $100 a month," says Abdel-Rahman Saeed, a member of the local hajj association in Baghdad.
"To perform the hajj, they would have to get at least five times more. Even with help from their sons, many elderly cannot travel this year too."
Farfetched Dream
Suheila Mahmoud, 68, will not be able to embark on hajj because all his savings were stolen a couple of months ago when militants took over his house.
"I pleaded with them that the money was for hajj but they laughed and said the money would have much more utility in their hands," she recalled tearfully.
"I went into depression for many days because it was the money I have been saving for nearly 10 years," she added.
"Now I have to accept that maybe I will never visit Makkah and won't be able to perform one of the most important God’s commandments."
In other cases, the money kept by the family to perform hajj had to be used to save the life of loved ones kidnapped during sectarian mayhem.
"My son was kidnapped and they demanded a ransom of US $15,000," Youssef Bakar, 56, a shopkeeper in Baghdad, told IOL.
"Everything we had kept since we got married was given to the gang. Our project was to use the money to take all the family to hajj but our dream has vanished into thin air," he said.
"To make the pilgrimage we need at least 2,000 for each person and for an Iraqi it is a huge amount of money that people spend years to save.
"We hope that one day we will be able to make it though our chaotic living condition suggest that would be a farfetched dream."
Ali Hussein, 13, sells religious souvenirs in the Shiite holy city of Najaf to help his family raise money for hajj.
"My mother told us that being children, people might get more sensible and buy our stuffs more than if she sold them," the primary school student told IOL.
"They don’t force us to do it but I and my brother know that it is their dream, a very blessed dream."
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