MUI Affirms Hajj Through Illegal Illegal Paths In Today's Memory, August 30, 2016

Portrait of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Makkah. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA Memories of today, eight years ago, August 30, 2016, the Central Java Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) revealed that the pilgrimage through unofficial or illegal routes does not meet the requirements so that the pilgrimage is invalid. MUI considers the pilgrimage must not be littered with criminal acts.

Previously, many Indonesian Muslims were impatient with the queue for Hajj departures. They have to wait a dozen years to get on the pilgrimage through regular channels. Then, they try to comply with departures through countries where the hajj quota is never full.

Naik haji adalah penyempurna ibadah sebagai umat Islam. Orang-orang yang merasa cukup dan mampu berlomba-lomba menuju ke Tanah Suci. Namun, punya uang saja tidak cukup. Apalagi mereka mendaftarui haji reguler.

The registration did not necessarily make them go to the holy land. Prospective pilgrims must enter the queue first and wait for their turn to leave. Each region also has a different waiting time. At that time around a dozen years.

This condition makes people have to register for Hajj early. The goal is that they can carry out worship when the body and soul are still healthy and not yet renta. There are also those who still surrender waiting for their turn to be able to go on the pilgrimage, even though they are old.

Some can be patient, some can't be patient. They try all kinds of ways to be able to perform the pilgrimage. Naughty travel services were chosen. The goal is that they can depart from a country whose hajj quota is never full like the Philippines.

This condition clearly violates the law. They have to pay dearly. However, the method used is not good. They were forced to use fake documents and of course use a Philippine passport. The practice has been done in recent years.

Unfortunately, the practice was exposed in early August 2016. There were around 100 pilgrims from Indonesia who were secured by the Philippines. As a result, the seven agents who tried to dispatch the illegal pilgrims were caught.

"The quota for Hajj in the Philippines is always lacking, while the quota for Hajj in Indonesia is always full. I also had a trip, three years ago I was offered by a travel agent to go through the Philippines, but I refused, because the risk was high".

"Many people have money. However, they don't want to wait long to go for Hajj, in the end they choose shortcuts through other countries," said Secretary of the Muslim Association for Hajj and Umrah Organizers of the Republic of Indonesia (Amphuri) East Java, Fauzi Mahendra, quoted by the COMPASS.com page, August 23, 2016.

Central Java MUI also took a stand to see the phenomenon of Hajj through an unofficial or illegal route. MUI regrets that many Indonesian Muslims use inappropriate methods, let alone fall into criminal categories such as pilgrims who use Filipino passports.

MUI then revealed that the pilgrimage through an unofficial route was illegal on August 30, 2016. This condition is because prospective pilgrims understand that their route to leaving is illegal. While the pilgrimage is a service to the Creator so that criminal acts cannot be littered.

"Especially if from the start they knew that the departure of the hajj was illegal, they were not allowed. Efforts to falsify illegal documents and actions were categorized as criminal. They did not become hajj. Hundreds of millions of rupiah will also be lost," said Deputy Chairperson of the Central Java MUI, Ahmad Rafiq as quoted on the tempo.co page, August 30, 2016.