20,000 to cancel haj pilgrimage

20,000 to cancel haj pilgrimage

JAKARTA (JP): About 20,000 prospective pilgrims have
threatened to cancel their haj pilgrimage if the municipality
does not scrap its numerical system for grouping pilgrims.

Under a regulation issued for next year's haj, pilgrims are to
be grouped according to lists provided by banks and not on family
or affinity connections.

The chairman of the Communication Forum of Instructors and
Consultants for Haj Pilgrims, Anwar Sanusi, said yesterday that
20,000 prospective pilgrims would cancel their pilgrimage
participation if the municipality does not scrap the regulation.

"The issuance of the new regulation by the city's religious
affairs office has created confusion among Moslems," he told
reporters after visiting the city council's United Development
Party faction.

About 2,000 haj instructors from five mayoralties staged a
rally in front of the religious affairs office in East Jakarta
Tuesday to protest the new regulation.

Anwar said that the system would cause spouses to be separated
during the pilgrimage. The instructors would also be separated
from their charges, he said.

Anwar said that the total number of prospective pilgrims in
Jakarta was 23,000. (ind)