It seems that the Protests and Strike culture is finding its way more and more among the Egyptians and wonderful thing it happens in the last place you would expect
This is time outside our national borders , it is in KSA this time in the holy land too during the Pilgrimage !!
Surprise is not it ??
3000 Egyptian Pilgrims members in the official delegation protested yesterday after Friday's prayer and they even made a siege around the HQ of the officials in the delegation protesting the bad treatment they suffer from in the delegation . It seems that they gave 3000 tents to sleep in made for less this number , the Saudis made the tents for less than 3000 people , for example they gave tents originally for 50 , the delegation assigns the tent to 100 person
It is a stupid thing , I mean it won't cost the delegation anything if they request more tents :(
Those pilgrims should be angry
First of all what is the official delegation ??
The official delegation of Pilgrimage is the Government Pilgrimage for the people ,it is made by a contest like the lottery for people who want to go but do not own enough money in order to go with a tourist company. The Official delegation contains thousands of Egyptians from all over the country and it is always headed by some ministers every year . But the way it is not free , they must pay some sum of money
Just for your information Egyptians are number one from the numbers of Pilgrims this year
And the most expensive Pilgrimage is the Egyptian one , the prices in Egypt is incredibly high ,they look to it as a trade not as a spiritual trip
Today a delegation from the interior and foreign ministries went to investigate the protests incident
Yes, the sad truth is...it's becoming a trade...Imagin that you'd have to pay up to 100 k to make your haj human enough with single rooms and proper treatment..
ReplyDeleteand if someone is willing to have it the hard way and make all the possible effort he will still suffer to get the visa...
I don't comment enough, but i always think that ur doing a great job with ur blog...thanks :)
I heard that Hajj is around 5-6000 dollars from Egypt. It's around 6-8000 from USA or Canada.The price skyrocketed in the last few years. It's insane and definitely a business. We had to spend another 500 on top of that for transportation to and from hotel to Haram etc. And then more money for food. Yes, there was no food included. Which is fine. From here one is happy to just get a spot. Greater demand than visas available.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went for Hajj last year same thing happened. Not enough tents for the group of 400 we were in. We paid 5500 dollars and were told Mena was not compulsary and they even had Imams tell us all we had to do was stay in Mena for a few hours. We just camped out on the highway in Mena with thousands of others who had no places in the tents and prayed Allah would accept our Hajj. YOU ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE HAJJ TOUR OPERATOR.
Despite the fact that I found Saudi society very anti-female, there were a lot friendlier than I had expected and I have to say that they do a pretty decent job of running Hajj and when you think of millions of people being in 1 place at one time all doing the same thing. Subhanallah it's amazing that it gets done as efficiently and as accident-free as it does.
I do feel that there is always room for improvement. A lot of Hajj operators charge a hefty fee and the service that is promised is not there. This needs to be better regulated by the Saudi government as the pilgrims are the guests of the King and his Kingdom. When we were to leave for home, one Pakistani pilgrim from the USA refused to leave the hotel unless his luggage left on the same bus. It did not. He stayed behind.
The Saudis also need a mono-rail system or something cuz the air pollution in Mecca is close to that of Cairo. Finding a cab in Cairo is much easier let me tell you.
I don't know if a protest is the answer. It's important not to get angry during Hajj and people have to expect hardship. We walked 9 hours from Muzdalifah back to the hotel. Buses don't show. Stuff like this happens in Hajj.
You have to thank God you were lucky to go at all.
BTW how do you know Egyptians were the largest group this year? Does it say so on the Ministry of Hajj site? I found that last year it seemed to me that the Turks were the largest in # but who knows.
Also, how do most Egyptians afford Hajj if it's the most expensive as you say? From what I read in your blog, the average Egyptian is living on 2 dollars/day. Is your government subsizing the cost?
@Rasha, first thanks for nice comment , about the Hajj ,it is a disgrace seriously what is happening in Egypt , I am surprised every year the new trends of Luxury Pilgrimage , is there a Luxury Pilgrimage and poor pilgrimage , I am afraid there is no such things for Luxury pilgrimage ,already this year's fashion in the Luxury pilgrimage is to have a massage between the rituals ,seriously it was written in the newspapers
ReplyDeletethese things must be stopped
@anonymous Hajj, first the majority of average Egyptians do not live on 2 $ dollars per day ,it is about 30% if I remember correctly , second Egyptians especially the average classes consider this is the greatest trip ever , they save money for years for it especially and they even borrow money,the Pilgrimage is one of the most especially things in our culture and folklore
the 5000-6000 dollars from Egypt is the high middle ,high class Hajj not the average one
the Saudis consider the Pilgrims as the Guests of God and they really are doing their best , I think in the coming years they will try to solve the problems of transportation ,tents and food after they had solved the Mena usual accidents
the number of Egyptians was published in Al-Arabiya ,this year the highest is the Egyptians and the lowest are the Iranians