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The worry over Swine flu has lead Tunisian officials to prevent some citizens from making the Omra this years and raised the question as to whether the Hajj should be delayed.
The Omra is a precursor to the Hajj. The Omra can be done at anytime, while the Hajj is reserved for a specific time which will occur in the fall this year. One of the Pillars of Islam is that both need to be done, if possible, with the Omra beforehand. They can be done any years apart.
Tunisian officials worry that with so many Muslims descending to the Omra and the Hajj, there could be a spread of the Swine flu there and then many returning pilgrims will bring it back into the country.
Tunisian officials have thus banned many nationals from doing the Omra - costing the Tunisian travel business around $175 million according to AFP. Tunisians have banned the sick and the elderly on the grounds that they would be more vulnerable than others. In a testament to how poorly the Tunisians have handled Swine flu, the elderly and sick are not known to be more vulnerable. In fact, most of the dead have thus far been rather young and healthy. This is reflective of the government's decision to slaughter pigs on the grounds that they contain the diseases when the UN ruled that do not.
Tunisian officials have raised the prospect of delaying the Hajj, but that is absurd and un-Islamic. The Hajj has a specific set of dates and it is unacceptable to do it any dates apart from. If Tunisian want to delay, they will be delaying it for no one. Tunisian will just go next year, while the rest of the Muslim flock will go this year.
