Today, at 11:55am on the Kiev time, the first group of the Ukrainian pilgrims went to Saudi Arabia for fulfillment of the fifth pillar of Islam - Hajj. About 100 persons started their way from the International airport Borispol to the holy relics of Islam. The travel company "Space travel star" became an official carrier of the Ukrainian pilgrims and incurred all obligations on organizational issues.
According to the general director of the tour agency Yasser Amro, this year Hajj will cost the Ukrainian Muslim around 3.500 thousand dollars. The permit includes flight, hotel accommodation, internal transportations and food. The trip is calculated for 22 days.
According to the planned program the holy city of Medina where they will stay for some days becomes the first place of stay of pilgrims. Then pilgrims will go to Makkah for fulfillment of the main ceremonies of Hajj. On November, 27th, by plane from Jidda pilgrims will return to Ukraine.
In the interview to one of the leading Ukrainian television channels the vice-president of the AUASO "Alraid", Shadi Ottman, stated that Hajj is the uniting factor for Muslims of the whole world. "I feel great pleasure when I see how many Muslims from Ukraine strive to perform this ceremony of worship. Not long ago the group of pilgrims consisted of 10 persons, but every year this number increases in tens times", Ottman summed up.
Interview to television channel "1+1"
Let us remind, the Ukrainian pilgrims go to Hajj in 3 groups. First two groups went on November, 5th, from Kiev (100 people) and Donetsk (50 people). Departure of the third group (40 people) will take place on Wednesday, on November, 10th, at 9am from the Islamic Social Cultural Centre of Kiev.
The total of the Ukrainian pilgrims reached 190 persons; among them there are 39 women that is the greatest quantity for the whole history of independent Ukraine.
