The repercussions of the siege crisis; prevention of citizens and residents from performing Hajj and Umrah

Doha International Center for Interfaith (DICID) held, on Tuesday, July 16, 2019, a roundtable discussion entitled: “The repercussions of the siege crisis; prevention of citizens and residents of Hajj and Umrah.” Representatives of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Human Rights Committee in Qatar, the Qatar Hajj Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This Roundtable is important for two reasons:

The first is that it is  coinciding with an important meeting  taking place in Washington DC , the  Second Ministerial  to Advance Religious Freedom, July, 16-18. A broad range of decision makers and dignitaries, including senior government leaders, international organization representatives, religious leaders, and civil society activists are convene to discuss challenges facing religious freedom in the world,   identify concrete ways to combat religious persecution and discrimination, and ensure greater respect for freedom of religion or belief.

The second reason for convening this roundtable discussion is to discuss the prevention of Qatari citizens and expats living in Qatar to perform Hajj since 2017 due to the blockade enforced over the country from Saudi Arabia since the Hajj season is approaching soon (first week of August) and nothing on sight that the Saudi authorities will allow the Qataris the expats living in Qatar to perform Hajj this year. It is urgent to remind the world community the importance of this religious rite for Muslims and call for the immediate lift of obstacles imposed by the Saudi authorities, so that Qatari citizens and residents can perform Hajj rites .

The discussions have focused on three main topics:

• First topic: the sanctity of the pilgrimage and the place of holy places for all Muslims.
• Second topic:  Hajj in the light of religious law and politics.
• Third topic: obstacles imposed by Saudi Arabia to hinder the pilgrimage of citizens and residents.

All attendees were deeply worried about the exploitation of   Saudi authorities, the religion factor for political purposes, in particular regarding Hajj and Umrah, which clearly shows that  the Saudis continue to put obstacles to prevent Qatari citizens and residents  from performing Hajj and Umrah.

At the end of the discussion, the participants concluded the roundtable discussion with a number of messages to the international community gathered in Washington, as follow :

First, it is necessary to explain the suffering of Qataris and expatriate pilgrims from Saudi actions that prevented and still preventing the Qataris from performing Hajj for the third year in arrow, and this picture should be clearly presented to the ministerial meeting at the ministerial conference in Washington.

Second: send an urgent message to the participants at the ministerial conference in Washington, who represent the political and religious leaders and civil society organizations from around the world, calling them to respect and defend our religious freedom rights and beliefs to perform the Hajj this year. this message represents the local community in Qatar          (mainly Muslims and Christians) who call upon the attendees at the Ministerial conference to put more pressure on the Saudi authorities to open air space and land border for the Qataris and expats to travel freely to perform Hajj, remove Hajj obstacles placed by Saudi authorities, and give the Qatari Hajj  Mission the needed authorizations to enable Qatari side to carry out their duties in the management of Hajj this year similar to all other Hajj missions of other countries.