Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas told reporters on Tuesday that the government was still reviewing its plan to allow Indonesian Muslims to take the hajj pilgrimage only once in their lifetime.

Chief Cultural Affairs Minister Muhadjir Effendy recently came up with the idea of banning multiple hajj pilgrimages as many Indonesian Muslims had to cope with long queues that could span years. By doing so, the first-timers can get a chance to perform the sacred ritual.

However, Yaqut said that the government had not come to a decision yet on the matter.

"Muslims must perform hajj once in their lifetime as long as they are [physically, financially, and emotionally] able to do so. But we would still need to review that idea if that would be the right decision or not," Yaqut said on the sidelines of the Jakarta Plurilateral Dialogue forum on Tuesday.

"Because we are aware of how many people have to wait to go on hajj. If our reason [to ban multiple hajj] is the long queue, I guess that would be the right thing to do," he said.

However, some of the pilgrims in the queue had previously gone on hajj. In other words, they are not first-timers, according to Yaqut. He added: "That is why we need to review things first."

The Religious Affairs Ministry data shows that a person can be on the waiting list starting from 11 years to 48 years, depending on the region. The average queue time for those living in the highly populated Jakarta stands at 28 years.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. The government earlier this year reported that Muslims made up 87 percent of the country's total population.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/govt-still-undecided-on-hajj-pilgrimage-restriction