All set: A group of pilgrims from Surabaya and Magetan in East Java board a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane to Madinah in Saudi Arabia from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya
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Sept. 14, p3
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo struck the first deal of his Middle East tour on Sunday, with the Saudi Arabian government approving a proposal to increase Indonesia's haj quota by 10,000, starting next year.
Jokowi said Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud had taken just minutes to agree to the proposal during a regional meeting.
'Saudi Religious Affairs Minister Muhamad Ali Sheikh approached me not long afterwards to tell me of the approval,' Jokowi said via his official Facebook account on Sunday.
Indonesia, the largest sender of haj pilgrims to the holy land, has seen its annual quota cut by 20 percent since 2013, down from 211,000 to the current 168,000 places after the Kingdom started massive construction on Mecca's Grand Mosque, causing the waiting list to extend to 2 million faithful.
Your comments:
Saudi nationalism, dispense the haj quota, and Indonesians pay for it. This is a clever way to sell paganism.
AG
During the President's state visit to Middle Eastern countries, we can only hope he is organizing for the Wahhabists in Indonesia to be sent over there permanently to live in the desert with their brethren.
This president has all his priorities wrong! We don't need more Arab indoctrination, they have nothing that we need; they have no skills, science nor technology needed for this country to advance.
All they have is their oil money, violence and backward stone-aged civilization. Please, come back home Mr. President, our economy is in ruin, your ministers are bickering and in disarray, our haze problem is affecting our neighbors. You have promised a lot, but delivered nothing!
Actually, they (Aramco) have the world's-best Scada system technology for oil production, so I think we need their investment in oil and gas.
Putra Perve
It would be rather nice if the news was about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia opening their borders to accept 10,000 more Syrian asylum seekers, fat chance!
Jay Tee
Of course. A higher quota equals more money. Saudi Arabia takes financial advantage of it.
DWL
I think this is good news for Indonesian people. At least, it is a great opportunity to decrease the waiting list of pilgrims.
Pradicta
Hikmahanto Juwana would no doubt call this a foreign policy success.
Abu
Ten years waiting time to lick a stone. And you might be killed by a falling crane. Inshallah.
Viking
Surely to die on one's haj is the best thing that could happen to a Muslim - being closer to Allah and going to paradise? I'm a bit confused as to why there has been so much negative press about it.
Hanna Febiany
When the oil runs out, Saudi Arabia will be well prepared. For years, this oil-rich country has been spreading its barbaric religious practices into Indonesia, and when the time arrives, Saudi Arabia will have a real need that Indonesia supply it with the near-unlimited bounty of the archipelago's bargain-price resources.
Does it sound crazy? Maybe. But Indonesia has squandered 70 years of independence, remains a resolutely corrupt, inept near-failing state.
Life is also cheap, and despite the rhetoric, was likely so, even before the Europeans arrived. There will be a sizeable number of pro-Saudi folks with a vengeance when the wells start to run dry.
And when Westerners will make their own oil from atmospheric CO2 and water, that situation may be even sooner.
Maurice Gold
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