O.K., that makes the numbers closer. If there are only 1,800,000 legal pilgrims from outside of Saudi Arabia, that’s closer to the figure of 1,200,000 to 1,570,000 that I get by dividing the number of Moslems in the world by 1,000. I suspect that when the Saudi government claims that they are giving visas to only one Moslem in a thousand, they are rounding the number. In any case, it’s still true that it’s completely impossible for all the Moslems in the world to do a hajj even once in their life, given that Mecca can only accomodate about three (or maybe three and a half) million of them per year.
I have a really dumb question.
Ok so no non-Muslims are allowed in Mecca …
How do they know whether someone is Muslim or not?
the google answers article I linked to above claims: Google Answers: How are non-muslims kept out of Mecca?
It seems that whatever numbers you use, and even discounting all the nominal or casual Muslims who don’t care about the Hajj requirement, there’s no way that every Muslim who is capable of going on Hajj can go. Yet I’m clearly missing something. How can there be such a disconnect between the required practices of a religion and what people can feasibly do? Though there are conflicting claims about how rapidly Islam is expanding, it certainly is growing (and just in my experience, converts to any religion are often the most devout), so the percentage of Muslims who can carry out one of the basic requirements of their religion will fall even farther, right?
Is this something Muslims are concerned about, or is it one of those rules like going to confession for Catholics–something that the faithful are supposed to do, but in reality tend to shrug off?
IANAM (I am not a muslim) but as far as I can see the Hajj requirement is only on those that can afford the journey and can fully support their dependents while gone, and won’t be left in debt or leaving anyone in hardship because of the cost of the journey when they get back. It seems to take at least two weeks in practise to do hajj as its not possible for 1.8 million people to fly into Jeddah the day before hajj starts so pilgrims arrive weeks before, same for leaving.
Here are the five pillars of Islam:
Even though these are considered the five main tenets, I suspect that Moslems treat them rather differently. The first is that one must profess that Allah is the only God and that Mohammed is his prophet. This is probably the one that is considered most essential, but even it must surely be considered flexible. What about children who die before they learn to talk and severely mentally retarded adults who never learn to talk? Surely a Moslem would say that the rule doesn’t apply to them.
The second one is the daily prayers. Again, there are those who can’t bow or can’t wash themselves before prayer for physical reasons and there are those who can’t pray at the specified times for various reasons. Such people are exempt from this rule. So this rule is more loosely observed.
The third one is the fasting. It is stated quite specifically that various types are exempt from this rule. This rule is thus even more loosely observed than the first two.
The fourth rule is charitable giving. It’s hard to know how this rule could be uniformly enforced. So it is still more loosely observed.
The fifth rule is the hajj. Again, there is no pretense that it applies to someone physically unable to travel or too poor to travel. I would assume that these days every Moslem knows that it’s just plain impossible for most Moslems to do a hajj. So it is the most loosely observed of all the rules. In other words, Moslems aren’t stupid. They can recognize when a rule might be a good general idea but impossible to stick to in practice.
Basically, Saudi Arabia has two separate visas. One visa is good for the rest of Saudi Arabia. The other visa is good for travel inside Mecca. The Saudi government issues ID cards and anyone traveling inside Mecca is supposed to be carrying theirs. In additions, pilgrims are only supposed to travel in Mecca in escorted groups and the escorts are government officials. As code_grey noted, you have to apply to the Saudi government for all of this and they require proof of religion.
Anyone traveling in Mecca without the proper paperwork and escort would stand out and be easily stopped and questioned.
“Nominal or casual” muslims would probably be as concerned about the Hajj as anyone else, doing a Hajj is a major event in the life of anyone and there is a big cultural dimension to it. I know one guy who did it last year, he never prays or fasts, but he and his wife still went.
The biggest issue is finances and logistics, not visa’s. A Hajj is at the very minimum a two or three week process and usually longer. You need to take off substantial time from work, you need to arrange accomodation, you need to purchase necessities and also plan for the post Hajj time, where you might not have a flight out of the country for sometime.