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Young Hajis dominate Mecca

Almost 1.5 million begin Haj pilgrimage.

Mecca, Saudi Arabia: The haj is no longer an old person’s ritual as a new generation of youthful Muslims are flocking to Macca for the holy pilgrimage.
“The younger you are, the easier it is,” says Saniah, a British pilgrim who, at 25, was on her second trip to Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia.

“Twelve years ago my family and I came for umrah,” the lesser pilgrimage which can be performed throughout the year, she says. This year, Saniah returned for the haj because it is a religious obligation and “a radical change of life”, said the Briton.

Saniah is among roughly 1.5 million people from across the world attending the haj which formally began on Saturday.

Omar Saghi, author of Paris-Mecca, Sociology of the Pilgrimage, says the haj is no longer “the mystical horizon of an entire life but a rational event” which has become almost routine.

Mohammed, 33, who travelled to the haj with his wife from Paris. “It’s an obligation and so, as soon as we had the means and while we’re healthy, we decided to do it,” he says. His wife Madiha, 28, said: “Rather than buy material things, better to spend our money on something that is going to benefit us on a spiritual level,” she says.

The rising number of such young people, “more educated and already used to tourism” has helped change the face of Macca, Saghi says.

( Source : AFP )
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