Ghoulamallah : « I’ll seek clarifications from Saudi Ambassador about Omra’s curtailment »

The Algerian religious affairs Minister, Bouabdallah Ghoulamallah, has affirmed that he will seek explanations from the Saudi Ambassador to Algiers about the Saudi authorities’ recent decision to curtail the duration of the OMRA or small pilgrimage to the holy places of Islam during the month of fasting of Ramadhan for the Algerian pilgrims to just 15 days from a whole month initially.

Taking the floor during a press forum organized on Sunday by the “El Manbar” newspaper in the Western city of Oran, the religious affairs Minister also dwelt on the Saudi authorities’ baffling decision to bar the members of the Algerian medical mission in Mecca and Medina from using their own ambulances for the transfer of ill pilgrims to hospital.

The Saudi authorities have of late slated that the transfer of sick pilgrims in Mecca and Medina should be carried out only through Saudi ambulances and not foreign ones.

 Mr Ghoulamallah expressed amazement at such  a move stressing that the dutiful Algerian medical staff based in Mecca and Medina was endowed with recently – purchased ambulances.

In a separate file, the religious affairs Minister called on Algerian citizens to remain steadfast and extremely vigilant in the face of the “preaching campaign” launched covertly in some Algerian schools, institutes and university campuses by zealous members of the all-pervasive Salafist movement.

The Minister warned against the nefarious activities of these radical elements who are seeking, he said, to sow the seeds of division, hatred and chaos in Algeria in the trail of the so-called ‘Arab spring’ which spawned turmoil, instability, and confusion in several Arab countries.