Muslim pilgrims avoiding States
Fear harassment. But Montrealers still planning trip to Mecca

HARVEY SHEPHERD - hshepher@thegazette.southam.ca 
The Gazette
Friday, January 17, 2003

What one organization calls "a strong anti-Islamic hate wave" is already altering the travel plans of Canadian Muslims.

But Montreal Muslims say they don't expect it to reduce the size of this city's contingent for the pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hajj, this year.

Montreal officials of two Muslim organizations and a travel agent said they expect as many Montreal Muslims to take part in the hajj this year as last.

Muslims from around the world will head for Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks for the pilgrimage, which every Muslim is required to make at least once in his lifetime, if he can afford it.

The pilgrimage culminates in the festival of Eid al-Adha - on Feb. 12 this year - which Muslims celebrate whether on the pilgrimage or not.

Bashir Hussain, president of the Montreal branch of the Council of Muslim Communities in Canada, said Montrealers making the pilgrimage this year are trying to avoid the U.S.

"They are going from here to London or here to Egypt or something. They are trying not to touch the United States."

This is because of new regulations requiring travellers originally from certain Muslim-majority countries to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Mohamed Amro, of Amro Travel in Pierrefonds, said he expects hajj trips to be up about 10 per cent from last year. Amro, one of several agencies providing hajj packages, expects to handle about 300 Muslim travellers,
not all from Quebec.

The big problem is with routes through the U.S., he said. "Nobody wants to go there."

In a statement this week, the Canadian Islamic Congress, based in Waterloo, Ont., cited a disclosure by the FBI that it had halted a manhunt for five terrorists of Middle Eastern descent who it originally said might have entered the U.S. from Canada.

The manhunt was based on a hoax, the congress noted.

"Meanwhile, the Canadian government has put more than a dozen groups, all Muslim, on its list of terrorist organizations."

Source: http://www.canada.com/montreal/news/story.asp?id=%7B4FBF457C-A18A-4891-8A2E-D9526971FE4C%7D