EVERY Ramadan the same phenomenon is repeated. You will see fake charity organizations asking for money to help the poor. You will also see businessmen presenting fake bankruptcy documents to take money from us. We are usually more generous in Ramadan looking for reward from Allah. We are also willing to give in this holy month without bothering to check the authenticity of the deeds or the nature of the charity organizations. This is an open bonanza in Ramadan that anyone can join to make some money. Some people come for Umrah during this month especially to beg. The latest entrants to this begging market this year are the businessmen. Investors and hotel owners in Makkah claimed that their financial losses in this month have increased to about 60 percent. The reason is that the Ministry of Haj has cut down the number of pilgrims coming from outside to perform Umrah by 500,000 because of the expansion work inside the Grand Mosque that has greatly narrowed the Mataf (circumambulation) area. The hoteliers have asked the ministry to compensate them for their losses. Unlike other ordinary beggars, they do not feel shy or ashamed to do this. On the contrary, they are upfront and very daring. They threatened the ministry that they would file lawsuits against it in the courts if it did not compensate them for the financial losses they had incurred as a result of its decision to cut down on the number of outside pilgrims. I know that the profits made by the hotels in Makkah are huge and are not to be compared to the profits achieved by hotels elsewhere. There are many reasons for this. The first is the lack of supervision. Second is the low salaries paid to the staff. The third is that the price of a top room can reach up to SR2,500 a night. In the light of these facts, can we say the hotels in Makkah have sustained financial losses or that their profits were not as big as they used to be, so they decided to enter the begging market by threatening to take the Haj Ministry to court if it did not compensate them? It is very disappointing that businessmen who feign bankruptcy receive compensation while the real ones do not because they do not have a chamber of commerce to stand behind them.
