MEDAN, KOMPAS.com - Saudi Arabia has promised to raise Indonesia’s hajj quota following the completion of the expansion of the ’thawaf’ encircling ritual area at the Haram Mosque, a legislator said.

"Saudi Arabia promises to increase Indonesia’s hajj quota if the Arafah and Mina fields have also been prepared. After all, the Mina city has prepared a fast train that could transport 800 thousand hajj pilgrims in every four hours from the ritual hurling place in Mina field to Mecca," Iskan Qolba Lubis of the House of Representatives (DPR)’s Commission VIII on religious affairs said in a press statement made available here on Tuesday.
     
He said that the Saudi Arabia’s promise was encouraging for Indonesian would-be hajj because the number of would-be hajj pilgrims could be increased. Lubis and other Commission VIII members were making an observation tour of the hajj activities in Saudi Arabi on November 10 to November 17, 2009.
     
Indonesia’s hajj quota is about 200,000 or 10 percent of the country’s population. The total number of Indonesians who have gone on the Hajj pilgrimage this year is 192,000.  They were flown from 11 embarkation airports in the country in 475 groups since October 23, according to data obtained from the Hajj pilgrimage affairs office on Nov 21.