THOUSANDS IN LEBAK AFFECTED BY HAJJ PILGRIMS' AGE LIMIT

Lebak, Banten, July 27 (ANTARA) - Thousands of people in Lebak district planning to make the hajj pilgrimage will be affected by a reported Saudi government regulation limiting pilgrims' maximum age to 65 years, a local religious affairs official said.

"It is estimated that by 2012, thousands of would-be hajj pilgrims older than 65 years will have been forced to cancel their plans to travel to Saudi Arabia," Ruhyat, a hajj affairs official at the Lebak district's religious affairs office, said here Monday.

The Lebak district's religious affairs office had so far yet to receive an official notice on the reported age limit from the Religious Affairs Minsitry in Jakarta, "but if the report is true thousands of Lebak residents with plans to make the pilgrimage will be affected." he said.

If the Saudi government's had really issued the ruling, Ruhyat said, it was very much hoped something could be done to have it withdrawn "because making the hajj pilgrimage is a right as well as obligation of Muslims regardless of age."
"The more so because meeting Allah's invitation to be His quest in the Holy land is the fifth article of faith of Muslims," he said, adding "there can be no age limit for Muslims to make the hajj pilgrimage."
Meanwhile, , Abdullah (68), a lebak resident with plans to go on the hajj pilgrimage, said the Saudi government's ban on people older than 65 years to make the hajj pilgrimage did not reflect an attitude supporting freedom to worship.

"I think, with this age limit, the Saudi government has gone too far," he said.