Record Chinese Muslims Embark on Hajj

CAIRO – Charging their spiritual batteries, a record number of Chinese Muslim pilgrims are embarking on hajj this year, seeking forgiveness in the soul-searching journey.

“Going to Makkah is something every Muslim dreams to accomplish in their lifetime,” Zhao Wenqi, an imam from Xi’an, told The Global Times.

Making his pilgrimage in 2010, he described the experience as “dreamlike” and “deeply spiritual.”
“We met Muslims from around the world and talked about what it’s like to be a Muslim in China,” Zhao said.

Wenqi was among Muslims who gathered to bid farewell to thousands of Chinese pilgrims who were granted the chance to fulfill their life-time journey of hajj.

The trip, including lodging and flight tickets, could cost 30,000 yuan ($4,786).

“More people are now able to afford the trip,” Ma Zhongping, deputy director of the China Islamic Association, said.

Muslims from around the world pour into Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.

Hajj consists of several rituals, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.

Hajj starts on the eighth day of the lunar month of Dhul Hijjah, which falls this year on October 24.

Most pilgrims come earlier to visit the holy mosques in Makkah and nearby Madinah, where Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) was buried over 1,400 years ago.

Record Numbers

Marking the largest convoy from China, the numbers of pilgrims this year show a gradual increase in hajj figures.
“There has been a gradual increase in the number of Chinese pilgrims over the past years,” Ma, the deputy director of the China Islamic Association, said.

The number of Chinese Muslims making the pilgrimage first exceeded 10,000 in 2007.

In 2010, it climbed to 13,300. This year 13,800 Muslims will make the pilgrimage.

“China currently forbids its citizens to travel to Makkah on their own, following the request by the Saudi Arabian government,” said Ma, adding that 3 million Muslims are expected to visit Makkah this year.

“We had around 1,000 people in Shaanxi Province applying for the trip, but only 279 people ended up going,” Wenqi, the imam from Xi’an, added.

According to official data, China has 20 million Muslims, most of them are concentrated in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai regions and provinces.

More than 2.25 million Hui live in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, accounting for more than one-third of the total population of the region.

Smaller Muslim communities can also be found throughout interior China.

Unofficially, Muslim groups say the number is even higher, stating that there are from 65-100 million Muslims in China — up to 7.5 percent of the population.

Source: OnIslam & Newspapers