Saudi Arabia discussions to ban children below 10 years of age from performing Hajj next year have been reported in several media outlets as a precautionary measure to protect them from scorching sun and large crowds.

“When the talks reach an advanced stage, the proposal to impose the ban will be referred to the high scholars’ commission for its views,” a source at the Saudi Hajj ministry were quoted by the local daily Al-Watan on Sunday, October 19.

“The decision will be naturally based on the need to protect lives, a highly significant tenet in Islam.”
The proposal to ban children under 10 has appeared following last hajj season in which thousands of young children appeared in the crowded rituals with their parents.
Asserting that hajj is obligatory only for adults who can afford it once in their life, officials at the Hajj ministry said that children would face huge problems dealing with the high temperatures that reach 44 degrees in the summer months.
This year, pilgrimage was held in October. Yet, with the Islamic calendar based on lunar months, the annual event will gradually be marked in the summer with soaring temperatures in the region.

The Islamic calendar is made up of 354 days, 11 days short of the Gregorian year.

According to official reports, most of the children were accompanying parents or family members who did not have regular tents and slept on the roadsides.
Around 65 per cent of the children were under the age of six and 20 per cent were aged less, the reports added.
The reports estimate the number of children who were at the hajj to be between 5,000 and 7,000.

During the rituals, medical officials at the Kingdom received several children who were offered medical treatment for problems related to the high temperatures and the large crowds.

The sources quoted by the daily said the talks to impose the ban have not reached the point of becoming a binding decision.

Controversial

The call to impose the ban has triggered contradictory reactions, with some welcoming and others criticizing it.

“We have a high demand and limited quota, and we would like that quota to be used by pilgrims who are fully aware of the religious obligations,” said one diplomat from a South Asian and Southeast Asian country told Arab News.

“Certainly, Hajj is not some kind of picnic; it is a grueling task and children should not be put in harm’s way,” he said.

Yet, for other expats families who had no one to take care of their children during hajj, bringing them to the rituals was the only solution.

“Who would want to bring little ones to Haj?” said Sadiya Anam, a teacher at a school in Riyadh who performed hajj this year with her husband and two small children.

“We had no option but to bring them and so we went the legal way and paid for their permits.”

Other Western pilgrims said that bringing their children to hajj will help their kids to feel the grandeur and passion for Islam.

“I brought children from London this year to let them see and feel for themselves the real beauty of Islam,” said Rafi Patel, a British citizen.

“We may keep telling our children about how everyone is equal in Islam but it is only at hajj you see that in practice and you cannot imagine the impact this has on young and impressionable minds.”

Tareq Angawi, head of the establishment for pilgrims from Turkey, Europe, America and Australia, was among those who backed the proposal.

“The majority of families who came from abroad to perform Haj this year with their children were mostly British, but their numbers were limited and they had only brought their children because they had no one to take care of them back home,” Angawi was quoted as saying in Al-Watan newspaper.

“Our group was very organized and we left children in big tents under the supervision of qualified assistants.”