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COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Muslims won’t participate on this yr’s Hajj, the nation’s pilgrimage organizers introduced on Tuesday, because the island nation faces its worst financial disaster in reminiscence.
Muslims make up nearly 10 p.c of Sri Lanka’s inhabitants of twenty-two million, which is predominantly Buddhist.
This yr, 1,585 Sri Lankans have been anticipated to carry out Hajj after Saudi Arabia introduced final month that it will enable 1 million overseas and home Muslims to journey to the holy metropolis of Makkah within the pilgrimage season.
The Hajj, one in every of Islam’s 5 important pillars of religion, was restricted to simply 1,000 home guests in 2020. Final yr, the Kingdom restricted the pilgrimage to 60,000 home individuals, in contrast with the pre-pandemic 2.5 million.
However even with Sri Lanka’s lowered pilgrim quota this yr, the price of sending worshippers to the Kingdom is just too excessive for the nation to bear.
“When going by way of the prevailing scenario and the struggling the persons are present process in our Mom Lanka, members of each associations determined to sacrifice this yr’s Hajj,” All Ceylon Hajj Tour Operators Affiliation and Hajj Tour Operators Affiliation of Sri Lanka mentioned in a letter to the nation’s Division of Muslim Non secular Affairs.
The organizations are umbrella teams of government-licensed operators — the one tour organizers out there to potential pilgrims.
Hajj Tour Operators Affiliation President Rizmi Reyal mentioned that the choice by operators was unanimous as a consequence of “the extreme greenback disaster dealing with the nation.”
Sri Lanka’s economic system is in dire straits. Earlier this month, the finance ministry estimated its usable overseas reserves at lower than $50 million. The nation has already defaulted on its money owed after lacking a deadline for overseas debt repayments.
“The entire Hajj operation of Sri Lankan pilgrims will price round $10 million, which is an enormous quantity in contrast with the present financial scenario of the nation,” Ahkam Uwais, chairman of the Nationwide Hajj Committee beneath Sri Lanka’s Division of Muslim Non secular Affairs, instructed Arab Information.
“The choice to forgo this yr’s Hajj is a beneficiant gesture by members of the Muslim neighborhood to sacrifice their pilgrimage for the sake of the nation,” he mentioned.
Saheed M. Rismy, president of the All-Ceylon Younger Males’s Muslim Affiliation, mentioned the Muslim neighborhood’s determination was “in solidarity with the opposite folks in the course of the making an attempt occasions.”
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