JEDDAH: The Haj pilgrimage provides a rare opportunity to people from various nationalities and cultures to exchange thoughts and ideas, mainly pertaining to religion, but language remains a barrier.

Professor Mouhammad Yahya said: “Translation is the biggest obstacle to the achievement of cultural communication between the intellectual elites.”

He called for translating the lectures and scientific dissertations held by the authorities concerned to expand their benefits, particularly for thinkers and scholars from non-Arab Islamic countries and delegations of other countries.

Joseph Dare, an intellectual, said that it’s time to hire a communication technique during the pilgrimage to achieve the desired goal from the gathering of more than two million pilgrims, and allocate specialized radio channels and websites during the pilgrimage seasons for the exchange of intellectual benefits and their interpretation.

Well-known critic Hussein Bafakih said: “The pilgrimage season seems like a cultural and scientific journey, and an umbrella for the meeting of scientists, intellectuals and travelers, providing an opportunity for exchanging various thoughts and cultures.”