Somaliland Passport for Hajj: An Open letter to the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques

Greetings to you, Your Majesty,

I would like to send this open letter to you direct, and ask you to allow the people of Somaliland to travel to the Holy Places of Mecca and Medina, for the Hajj season with their country’s Passport which is protected by their government and not like any other Somali Passport which can be forged. This Passport is first approved by the President’s office, and later issued by the Immigration Department, and that is the fact that it had never felt in the hands of those malicious forgers, since 1991.

 

We travel this Passport to Europe, America, Africa and the Far East, but our brothers in Arab countries are reluctant to allow for reasons beyond our comprehension. Hajj is the right of every Muslim on this earth to perform, and we seek that right from your government. Politics Sir has nothing to do with the order of Almighty, the Allah, who ordered every able Muslim to perform this if he or she is capable, as directed by the Holy Quran.

 

Your majesty, Somaliland is not like any other Somali entity that your country has known in the 20th century, but it’s the country that the followers of Prophet Mohamed [Sallalaahu Alayhi Wasalam] crossed to Abyssinia in the fifth year of Prophet’s mission [that is to say: 1,428 years ago]. The point or place they crossed to Abyssinia is the old town of Seyla, which is situated far North West of Somaliland, and the first Masjid of two directions [Qiblatayn] is present until today. The two peoples of Somaliland and the two Holly Haramayn are not new to each other, but their relations go back to 1630, when Grand Sharif of Mecca was the ruler of both Hijaz and Somaliland. Therefore, we should have relations better than this. We very much hope that the people of Somaliland will receive better consideration from your country by the order of your Majesty, in view of the long history and geographic proximity that we share, that warranty to have special relationship.

 

Your Majesty, my people fought shoulder to shoulder with your grandfather, the great King Abdul-Aziz, during the time he was carving out a nation from the disparate tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, and I personally met some of them in Qatar some 35 years back. Another very important fact we share is that, 99% of the Saudi citizens of Somali origin are from Somaliland, which emboldens us to proudly request your Majesty to consider this humble request.

 

Sincerely,

 

Omer Hussein Duale,

 

Hargeisa Somaliland