I’ve done a fair amount of traveling, but there are some places I’ve never been and would like to go. Mecca would certainly be one.
Assuming for the moment that I undergo a philosophical and religious conversion to Islam tonight, what steps would have to occur before I could go on Hajj and become *Hajji Attack from the 3rd Dimension *. Let’s assume for the moment that I’m an adult male of mostly European ancestry, I have sufficient money to go, my conversion is genuine, and that I want to go as soon as possible.
For example, I assume I’d have to start attending my local mosque. How long do I have to go before I can pack for Mecca? Do I then have tests on my knowledge of my new religion? Do I have to get a note from my local imam? Do the Saudi authorities have to vet me upon arrival?
ETA: You wrote, “…before I could go on Hajj and become *Hajji Attack from the 3rd Dimension *”. Actually, I think you’d be known as “al-Hajj Attack from the 3rd Dimension”.
Good question. I would be willing to bet that you have to have your imam and the saudi government involved, and I bet you would need an escort along as well. You would probably have to book the travel with the special visas through a specific hajj tour guide company as well.
I think it would be fascinating to go on a hajj, though as a female and not willing to make a false conversion, it is never going to happen.
One way to go would be to get a job in Saudi and claim you’re a Moslem when you get your residence visa. I don’t think they actually check at that point. This would get you a green Iqama (residence card). After you have that, you could simply drive over there. I have been to Mecca many times although I have always been on or outside of the “Infidel bypass.”
The area around Mecca is seriously fugly, sand and sandy/rocky hills with very little else.
I understand that without undergoing a converstion to Islam, you would not be eligible to go on the Hajj; however, I don’t understand why you said, “as a female.” Millions of Muslim women make that prilgrimage.
“New Muslims who have not changed their names on their passport are required to submit a statement in writing from their local Islamic center validating their conversion.”
So I guess that if your passport says “William Henry Robinson”, on it, they’re gonna want some evidence from an imam that you are a bona-fide Muslim. If your passport says “Abdullah Ismail Robinson”, you’re probably ok with that requirement.
because firstly i am married, and he will not convert falsly either, and married women do not go travelling around the middle east, especially not on religious pilgrimage with a man not her husband, and women do not travel around the middle east alone [if they know what is good for them, especially when they are so white they pretty much glow in the dark.]
I don’t have my copy of the book here to check, and don’t recall if he had gone on his hajj. But there are plenty of light-skinned Muslims in the world.
Manage what? Do you want legitimately to convert to Islam? If so, I recommend contacting the imam at that mosque for advice. Perhaps he can arrange for a local Muslim to mentor you.
Shouldn’t be too difficult. There are evangelical Muslims. I live in a neighborhood in Chicago with a large Middle-Eastern population, and one group left an English language Quran in a bag on the handle of my front door.
They have women-only Hajj tours; no need to be with your husband.
I just read a fascinating book called In the Land of Invisible Women about a single female Western Muslim (think she was British, of Pakistani parents) who moved to Saudi Arabia and (among other things) did the Hajj. She was not married, but joined a group of women (married and single) to do the Hajj.
Really? You find it OK that someone would do a false conversion, and then go into a situation that is physically dangerous, not to mention somewhat illegal in the laws of the country in question?
What should I have answered … I can’t go because I would rip my clothing off and dance naked at al Qaaba and defile the area? I can’t go because I am getting my hair and nails done? I answered honestly as to why I will never get to make a pilgrimmage, though IMHO you can make pilgrimmage without being the religion in question - I have dine a pilgrimmage to Lourdes and I am not Catholic - I went because the man I was with was Catholic, and I have nothing against praying in a nondenominational way at a religious site. But since Islam holds the Qaaba holy and bars nonmuslim from visiting on pilgrimmage, I am unable to visit legally, and I am unwilling to lie to get there. If you want to lie to visit, knock yourself out.
And as I said before, I am unwilling to lie. The all woman tour group is unusual, and I bet that there is a married couple escorting them as there is a law against unescorted women in Saudi Arabia, or so it was explained to me when I wanted to fly over and just tour there about 10 years ago [not hajj, just tour the cities and some dig sites.]
Your objection to lying was already taken care of by your statement that you were unwilling to falsely convert. That plus the fact that the OP assumes genuine conversion means that’s off the table. For the purposes of this thread you have genuinely converted. Given that I pnt think it’s outrageous to wonder why your being a woman makes the Hajj out if the question. No one is expecting you to lie. They are expecting you to respect the hypothetical.