The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is looking for ways to solve the problem of squatters in the holy Mosques in Makkah and Madina. Dr. Habib Zainulabedin, Deputy to the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, told Okaz that a workshop has been started on Monday to probe solutions for the problem of squatters, whose numbers sometimes are estimated at more than one million. They are low-budget pilgrims who sleep out in the open at and near the holy Mosques. Zainulabedin said that when senior clerics had been asked to issue a religious edict on whether pilgrimage on a shoestring budget should be banned, their answer was that as many pilgrims as possible should be allowed to perform Haj. “Therefore, a basis in Shariah that could've banned this practice as of yet doesn't exist,” he said. Dr. Zainulabedin added that concerned authorities are contemplating allowing these pilgrims to stay in the central area in Muzdalefa. The other possibility to limit the practice, he said, would be to build fences around the holy Mosques, a proposal which he described as totally unfeasible. “We are for curbing the practice, but not for eliminating it totally,” he said. Another solution proposed to stem the flow of illegal pilgrims into Makkah, he added, would be for legal pilgrims to prepay for set means of conveyance and to restrict access to the holy Mosques to other vehicles. But this is far from being considered as of yet. – Okaz __
