Haj pilgrimage management not to be shared, says Saudi
FACING CRITICISM Prince Turki al-Faisal stated that administering the pilgrimage is a matter of sovereignty, privilege
KARACHI: Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal has rejected a suggestion to share the administration of the annual Haj pilgrimage with other Muslim nations.
According to the Dawn, the prince stated that administration of annual Haj pilgrimage is a matter of “sovereignty” and “privilege”.
Saudi Arabia has been facing criticism in the wake of last month’s disastrous stampede in Mina, in the outskirt of the holy city of Mecca, which killed over 1,400 piligrims including 114 Indians.
Iran, which lost the highest number of pilgrims in the incident, has accused Saudi Arabia for mismanagement and had called for an independent body to oversee the administration of the Haj.
However, the prince said that the Kingdom has overcome many problems regarding Haj and will not give up that distinction of being the servants of the two holy places.
The royal Al Saud family, which governs Saudi Arabia and for which the country is named after, derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the haj and Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina.
King Salman, in line with past Saudi monarchs, holds the title of “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Muhammad’s first mosque ever built in Medina.
“The kingdom over the years, having gotten over the awful times when pilgrims couldn’t guarantee their travels to the haj in the old days and all the other factors of disease and crowds and housing and so on, we’ll not give up that privilege or that distinction of being the servants of the two holy places,” the prince said.
“The people of Mecca are the ones who know best the territory of Mecca and you can’t take that away from the people of Mecca,” he added.
Turki is the most senior Saudi royal to comment publicly on the Iranian criticism. He is currently chairman of the Riyadh-based King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, named after his late father.