ISLAMONLINE: CAIRO — New Muslims in several East European countries are being given the lion's share of free hajj packages offered by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz.
"The Islamic Center of Brno has received 20 free hajj packages from the Saudi Embassy," Munib Hassan Al-Rawi, the director of the Islamic Waqf Society in the southern Czech city of Bruno, which runs the center, told IslamOnline.net.
"The priority was given to new Muslims with the hope that the spiritual journey would further strengthen their new beliefs."
Al-Rawi noted that the Saudi Embassy has given most of the free hajj packages to Czech's only two Islamic centers in the capital Prague and Brno.
Nearly 100 pilgrims, including 50 beneficiaries of the Saudi grants, will be flying to Istanbul, Turkey, en route to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim — who can financially afford the trip — must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.
The Czech Republic, which has a population of more than 10 million people, is home to around 15,000 Muslims.
The number of new Muslims is estimated between 1500-2000, many of them embraced Islam in the 1990s.
In 2004, Prague acknowledged Islam as an official religion, giving Muslims rights on equal footing to Christians and Jews. >>> By Hani Salah | December 3, 2008
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