Romania Reverts Find Solace in Hajj

"For me, hajj is a spiritual experience," Istan Liliana, who embraced Islam 18 months ago, told IslamOnline.net on Monday, December 25.

"I'm already feeling the breeze of the holy city of Makkah," she added.

"I'm sure I'll find solace in such a journey to compensate me for some of the hardships I suffered after my reversion," said Liliana, whose life took a dramatic turnabout when accepting Islam.

The resident of the southeastern city of Constanta, home to 85 percent of Muslims in Romania, lost her job after donning the hijab and was abandoned by family and friends because of the new faith.

"I'm looking forward to visiting the holy lands to find the peace of heart and mind," she said.

Liliana is among 320 Romanian pilgrims, mostly young reverts, traveling to Saudi Arabia for hajj this year.

The first batch of pilgrims, the biggest hajj mission since the downfall of communism in 1989, left on Sunday, December 24.

There are some 70,000 Muslims in Romanian, mostly hailing from Turkey and Albania. They make up two percent of the country�s 22 million population.

Hajj consists of several ceremonies, which are meant to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim -- who can financially afford the trip -- must perform hajj once in their lifetime.

Hajj climaxes this year on December 31 when the faithful descend the Mount `Arafat.

Dream

Mihai Brescaro, a 21-year-old revert, sees hajj the most important event in his newly-found life.

"It's a dream come true," Brescaro, who embraced Islam two years ago, told IOL, echoing Liliana's feelings.

Brescaro, who started reading about Islam when he was studying in Belgium, is counting the days to visit the Ka`bah and perform the fifth pillar of Islam.

Some of the pilgrims have been awarded free-of-charge hajj trips after winning an annual contest organized by the International Tiba Charity in Constanta.

"Twenty youths out of 30 competitors have won hajj tickets this year," Tiba representative Kareem Anjin told IOL.

He said the question-and-answer contest was based on four books written in Romanian about the basic tenets of Islam like prayer and hajj rules.

"Tiba also given ten of the twenty free hajj packages offered by the Saudi king," Anjin said, adding that the other ten went to mosque-goers picked by the Iftaa House.

He asserted that for the first time his charity has subsidized hajj trips.

"We offer hajj trips for 1,700 euros each," Anjin said. "Twenty pilgrims applied for the subsidized trips."

The cost of hajj by plane this year in Romanian has been estimated at an average of 2,200 euros.

"We also published 1,000 copies of a 48-page hajj magazine written in Romanian to be distributed among pilgrims and mosque-goers nationwide," Anjin said.

Tiba Charity is one of the leading hajj organizers in Romania.

It successfully co-organized the International Conference on Islam in Europe in October 2005, which brought together representatives of Muslim minorities in up to 40 European countries.

The charity has translated dozens of Islamic books into Romanian and issued the first glossy magazine on Islam in Romanian, Islam Today. The magazine comes in 36 colored pages.