Hajj
I am writing with reference to a LETTER FROM EUROPE headed “In sorrow, not in anger” written by Mr. Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam, a columnist of The Daily Star, that appeared in your issue of January 5, 2009. In his letter, Mr. Alam provided details of his agonizing experience while performing Hajj. It is indeed regrettable that his “joy and spiritual exhilaration” was tainted due to the fact that he had to part with his passport as this was taken away by the Immigration Authority of KSA without any receipt. He went to a great length in his frantic efforts for recovery of the passport. He further stated that he “was asked to pay an amount of approximately two hundred euros” to some authority in Medina and was advised to go the next day to collect his passport. Sadly, even after this payment the passport was not delivered as promised!
The frantic attempts of Mr. Alam to recover his passport are agonizing in fact from what he writes it appears that his attempts turned into obsession. Along with my wife I also performed Hajj this time, and our experiences are totally different from the ones cited by Mr. Alam. We (and also our fellow Hajjees) did not feel unprotected when our passports were exchanged with hand bands that would serve, during the remaining part of our stay in KSA, as legal document in substantiation of the fact that we were genuine Hajjees travelling on legitimate documents this practice is applied for all visitors and has been in place for many years. Our passports were returned in due time before our check-in at the departure lounge of Jeddah Airport. The
government of KSA has to be paid some fee for reimbursement of costs incurred for transportation between Mecca Medina Arafat, rent for camp at Mina and Arafat. Payment of Euro 200 by Mr. Alam may represent reimbursement of these costs.
It is indeed interesting how the KSA authorities manage such large congregation of people going for Hajj from so many countries each and every Hajee, out of millions, is duly accounted for with amazing precision! Mr. Alam would have enjoyed his holy trip to KSA if he could muster his confidence in the government of KSA who had been successfully managing this yearly event with great efficiency.
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