Our hearts are in our throats every year before Haj lest something unforeseen happen during the time when millions of pilgrims are performing the rituals. Our unease is not because we have not prepared for Haj or because our planning has been less than it should have been. The unease is simply because of the nature of Haj and the nature of the people involved. Haj is performed once a year in one place at a specific time; there is no way to change the time or move the place to somewhere else. People are eager to perform Haj because it is the duty of every Muslim once in their life. Some people, in fact, perform Haj every year as long as they are able to do so.
Because people have more money these days and because communications and transportation have also improved dramatically, the steadily increasing number of pilgrims is a problem which puts considerable pressure on the government.
Nearly three million pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom this year. The increase in the number of pilgrims is not paralleled by an increase in the capacity of the holy sites in Makkah and Madinah. As soon as Saudi Arabia spends hundreds of millions of riyals to provide facilities for pilgrims, the number of pilgrims increases to a level that is beyond the capacity of the existing facilities. Despite increasing efforts by the government to solve the problems of Haj, there is one fundamental issue that is very difficult to address — problems springing from the ignorance of some pilgrims. No matter how hard the Saudi government tries, they cannot adequately inform millions of pilgrims with different languages, cultures and backgrounds. The government cannot increase the pilgrims’ level of awareness in the short time. Increasing awareness requires a long time and is not easy to do. It is very much connected with society, social institutions, the economy and of course culture as well.
For many reasons, Saudi Arabia — or any other country — is unable to guarantee what will or will not happen during Haj. There are simply too many people gathered in a small space in a short period of time. The only real solution is that the number of pilgrims be directly related to the capacities of the available facilities. The number of pilgrims simply must be reduced. Other countries must cooperate with the Kingdom in reducing the number of pilgrims and the Saudi government must do a better job in preventing local pilgrims without permits from performing Haj. The government did a good job in organizing Haj this year but the problem is not with who organizes Haj. The problem is with who is organizing the huge number of pilgrims who want to perform Haj every year.
