RELIGION

Khakim ABDULLO

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Khakim Abdullo, Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Tajik State National University (Dushanbe, Tajikistan)

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At the beginning of 2005, the preparations for the next hajj to Mecca for nearly 4,000 pilgrims were completed. In the past, thousands of those wishing to go to Mecca had to overcome numerous hardships: in 2004, hundreds of Tajik pilgrims had to queue standing for a week at Dubai airport before they could board an aircraft, which caused quite a stir in Tajikistan. This happened because of lack of adequate experience in the past; for several reasons there was no Central Spiritual Administration of the Muslims in the country. On 3 December, 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers, in an effort to bring order to the process, adopted decision No. 457, in compliance with which organizing duties were entrusted to the Committee for Religious Affairs under the RT government.

As soon as Hajj-2005 was over, some of the local media pointed out that higher voucher prices (which rose from $1,250 to $1,750) did nothing to improve the organizational side—everything was done much worse than before. The press got hold of some of the preliminary conclusions of the auditing structures, which found out that $7m of the hajj money had been misused. Some of them went as far as accusing the Committee of monopolizing the highly profitable “hajj-business,” of financial frauds, and of laundering a large part of the money collected. The Committee responded by describing the reports as the insinuations of private hajj guides who had lost their businesses as a result. The protracted conflict around the “holy millions,” however, evoked a wide public response and……………

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