Indonesian Hajj pilgrim tries to use all 30 kg of his luggage allowance on cigarettes, gets smokes confiscated, goes to Mecca with empty suitcase

Many pilgrims from Indonesia have already begun flying to Mecca in anticipation of the Hajj, which begins at the end of the month. Like many travelers undergoing a long journey to a distant land, Indonesian pilgrims often like to bring a little piece of home with them, like, say, some packets of Indomie. Or, cigarettes. Lots and lots of cigarettes.

However, some pilgrims heading to Mecca from Probolinggo, East Java, found out the hard way that there are limits to what you can bring to the Holy Land after the illicit contents contained in eight of their suitcases were confiscated by the organizers of the Surabaya Hajj Committee before their flight to Mecca.

An X-ray scan revealed the suitcases were filled with items that are prohibited from international flights.

“Eight hajj candidates whose entire suitcase contained cigarettes, supplements and some packs of powerful jamu (herbal medicine), happened to come from the same region, namely Gili Ketapang Island in Sumberasih, Probolinggo,” said Santoso, the head of Probolinggo’s Religious Affairs Office, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.

Santoso apologized for the rule breakers but said that his department had often explained to Hajj pilgrims the rules about what they could and could not bring on international flights. He also said he was concerned that the items that were confiscated might have been sold for profit in Saudi Arabia.

“We have often reminded (pilgrims) that our reason for going to the Holy Land is to worship, not to do business,” Santoso said.

One of the pilgrims from Proboliggo, Muradin, protested that he had followed the rules and carefully weighed his suitcase to make sure it didn’t go over his 30 kg luggage allowance. However, since he had used all of his 30 kgs on cigarettes, he says he is flying to the Holy Land today essentially empty handed.

“And now here they’ve confiscated all of my things. Now I am bringing an empty suitcase, going to Mecca without anything,” Muradin said.

So, did he really think he could survive with nothing but cigarettes during the entirety of his Hajj trip? As unlikely as that sounds, given the fact that Indonesia has some of the highest male smoking rates in the world, and the fact that 17 pilgrims from Indonesia have already died in Mecca mainly due to heart attacks, we can sort of understand how he might have thought that.