Russian Muslims make hajj by air in 2012

All Russian Muslims have used air transport to make hajj this year, head of the department for hajj and umra of the Russian Council of Muftis Abdurashid Khalikov said, RIA Novosti reports.

Direct flights were organized from Medina to Jidda, about 80 km from Mecca, due to the crisis in Syria. People flew from Amman to Jordan and then to Medina, taking 25-30 hours.

About 9000 Muslim pilgrims used grounds transport in 2011, 11000 used cars. Most pilgrims came to Saudi Arabia from the North Caucasus.

Hajj starts on October 24. First Russian groups of pilgrims will arrive on October. They consisted of 20500 people.

Quotas for hajj to Saudi Arabia are formed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The quota is 1 per 1000 people. Russia has about 20 million Muslims so it may send 20500 pilgrims, basing on the UN demographic data.

About 1500 pilgrims failed to arrive from the central part of Russia, Povolzhye and Siberia. Khalikov said that Russia wanted to increase the quota to 25000.