Qatar accuses Saudi Arabia of banning its Hajj pilgrims

‘There is no chance this year for Qatari citizens and residents to travel for Hajj’

SAUDI ARABIA’S international feuds have spilt over into the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Qatar has accused the kingdom of barring its citizens, while Canadians fear being stranded there after Saudi Arabia suspended flights to Toronto following a spat over the kingdom’s human rights record.

More than two million Muslims are in Mecca for the six-day ritual that started yesterday. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which every ablebodied Muslim with the means must attend once. Qatar, which Saudi Arabia blockaded in 2017, has said more than 1,200 eligible citizens have been barred from making the pilgrimage, something the kingdom has denied.

“There is no chance this year for Qatari citizens and residents to travel for Hajj,” Abdullah al-kaabi, who runs the state’s human rights committee, told Reuters. “Registration of pilgrims from Qatar remains closed.”

Saudi authorities have denied the claims and blamed Qatar itself.

Okaz, a pro-government newspaper, went as far as to call on Qataris to “rise up” against their ruling family, whom it accused of “annulling the fifth pillar of Islam”. Canadians have also been affected by the crisis between their government and Saudi Arabia, which expelled Ottawa’s ambassador and suspended flights by its national carrier on Aug 13 after Canada criticised a crackdown on dissidents, a sign that the kingdom will tolerate no criticism even as it unfolds reforms, including allowing women to drive.

Flights before the suspension were not affected, but there are concerns about how the pilgrims will return.

Saudi Arabia prides itself on managing Islam’s holiest sites and is sensitive to accusations that its increasingly muscular foreign policy has affected its obligations to all Muslims.