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Pilgrims Cheated of Money in Hajj Trip Con Game
Antara | December 31, 2011

In this file photo Indonesian pilgrims conduct a practice run of a religious ritual before a mock-up of the Kabaa, Islam In this file photo Indonesian pilgrims conduct a practice run of a religious ritual before a mock-up of the Kabaa, Islam's holy shrine, at a training center in Jakarta as part of final preparations before departing for the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)
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antifreeze
1:02pm Dec 31, 2011

And here we have it. Stealing from God.

First prize for the most cynical venality of the year.

herbert.wippel
12:56pm Dec 31, 2011

for these people sharia is good, every day when they wake up in the morning they will perform their daily duties onehanded and remember their crime

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A couple with an illegal travel firm offering hajj pilgrimage tours banked on people’s eagerness to visit Mecca in order to scam them of their money, prosecutors told a West Sumatra court on Friday.

Herman and Novianti, the couple at the helm of the travel firm Al-Haram, operated their services without the required license from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Padang district court heard.

Their company specialized in the minor pilgrimage, which is conducted during the off-hajj season, charging customers a fee ranging from $1,400 to $1,800 for trips lasting 10 to 15 days.

The price included return air tickets from Padang to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as well as four-star hotel accommodations and guides, an advertisement said. Similar tours through legal travel companies cost at least $2,100 for a 10-day trip.

The couple’s company told its customers to pay up front for a trip in April, but close to the scheduled departure date it postponed the trip until June 30.

When the new departure date arrived, the trip was once gain postponed until August.

Hoping to appease the angry customers, Novianti met with them later and offered them a guarantee: two cars, two houses and an office that she and Herman owned. But the customers took her to court instead.

“The defendants admitted that the customers’ money had been used to pay for the journey of earlier customers who left in March,” said Aliyus, the prosecutor in the case.

The cars, homes and office that the couple offered as collateral had also been sold off to pay for the travel arrangements of other customers.

“Some of the customers who were cheated had already gotten their visas,” Aliyus said. “And then later it became known that Al-Haram did not even have an operating license.”

Travel companies offering services for the hajj and minor pilgrimage need a license from the Ministry of Religious Affairs in order to operate legally.

After the hearing, a lawyer for the defendants aired his objection to the indictment and asked the panel of judges to release the defendants from custody.

The panel of judges, led by Budi Soesilo, said they would consider the request. The court will resume the trial on Thursday to hear the defense plea.

Muslims in Indonesia often save money for years so they can go on hajj, but because the Saudi government has imposed a quota on the number of pilgrims who can go, the waiting list is long and the waiting times equally so.

There are no such restrictions on the number of pilgrims for the minor hajj.

Islam requires Muslims who can afford it to go on the hajj at least once in their lifetimes.