Muslims of Southern Russia criticize high cost of Hajj

The quotas for the regions of Southern Russia for pilgrimage to Mecca, provided within last year's amounts, have not been fully bought out yet. Residents of Chechnya and Dagestan are outraged by the rising prices for the 2019 Hajj.

"The reception of documents for this year's Hajj will end on July 1. To date, more than 1800 applications have been submitted, which is 70 percent of this year's republic's quota for pilgrims," the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Chechnya has noted.

The Chechen tour operator has defined the cost of a voucher for participation in the Hajj at USD 3300.

The Dagestani tour operator "Marva-Tour" offers an economy version of a Hajj tour for USD 2650.

Social network users have criticized these too high prices. "With such prices, I'll never see Hajj," wrote a user under the nickname agaeva___uma_.

In recent years, the cost of pilgrimage has been steadily growing, Chechen Muslims confirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In past years, pilgrimage to Mecca was cheaper, said local resident Adlan. "Then, the US dollar was cheaper; and no additional fees were charged from pilgrims. Travel expenses are rising every year," the Chechen resident has added to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 7, 2019 at 04:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.