Four Chinese Haj pilgrims have died of diseases in Saudi Arabia
before the Haj or Muslim's pilgrimage starts today in Mecca. But
the rest of Chinese Haj pilgrims are ready to perform the most
important rites in their lives, according to Mustafa Yang Zhibo,
vice president of the China Islamic Association and director of the
Chinese Haj group.
The four Chinese Haj pilgrims are Ma Kefu, 62, of Gansu
Province; Ma Hongying, 69, of Yunnan Province; Yang Guozhong, 74,
of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; and Osman Sulitang, 65, of
the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Ma Kefu died of lung cancer and the others of heart disease.
They are among 202 pilgrims that have died of old age and other
natural causes this year, the Supreme Haj Committee of Saudi Arabia
said on Monday.
The China Islamic Association has informed relatives of the four
pilgrims. All have already been buried in Saudi Arabia, three in
Mecca and one in Medina, Yang said.
"Almost every year some Chinese Haj pilgrims die of diseases,
and we have 20 doctors in our group this year to give pilgrims
medical treatment," Yang said.
This year the number of Chinese Muslims who joined the Haj group
of the China Islamic Association hit a record 9,785 people, about
40 percent up from last year's number. The figure does not include
about 4,700 Chinese Haj pilgrims who traveled through a third
country, mostly Pakistan.
The governments of China and Saudi Arabia agreed in May that
individual Chinese Haj pilgrims would not be issued visas. Unclear
on the regulation, thousands of Chinese Muslims went to Pakistan to
apply for Haj visas. After discussion between the governments of
China and Saudi Arabia, they were granted visas, but this will be
the last time they will be issued to individual Chinese Haj
pilgrims.
Members of the Haj group of China Islamic Association stay in
buildings that the association rents, whereas other Chinese
pilgrims make their own arrangements. Yang said the association
would help Chinese Muslims who traveled separately in urgent
circumstances.
The rites of the Haj include staying at the field of Arafat,
collective walks around the Kaaba (a shrine located in a square
adjacent to the Grand Mosque in Mecca), and the symbolic stoning of
evil.
The stoning of evil, or jamarat, has often triggered stampedes
in the past. In 1990, 1,400 pilgrims were killed. Last year, about
360, including five Chinese Muslims, were killed.
To avoid similar incidents, the government of Saudi Arabia
launched a jamarat expansion project, the first phase of which was
completed before this year's Haj. There is also a time schedule and
route set up so that each country's Haj pilgrims may
participate.
(China Daily December 28, 2006)
