By John Keating
PARIS, April 23 (KUNA) -- The biggest-ever exhibit on the holy "Hajj" pilgrimage was opened here Wednesday at the Arab World Institute (IMA) and is expecting thousands of visitors until the event ends on August 10.
The exhibit is being hosted at the IMA, which is co-organiser along with Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Library along with the British Museum in London.
At the official inauguration, President Francois Hollande, on his first-ever visit to the IMA, said he "has no doubt about the success" of the major exhibit, officially called "The Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca." Hollande also spoke warmly about relations with the Arab and Islamic worlds and how France is "attentive" to the needs of pilgrims leaving France from the Hajj.
IMA sources said that about 50,000 people, half of them French nationals, leave this country every year for Saudi Arabia to respect their Islamic duty of pilgrimage. Many of those live in France but a number of North African and African Muslims pass through France on their way to the pilgrimage.
"For centuries, movement of goods, ideas and people have linked out destinies. The destinies of France and the Arab world," Hollande told the inauguration which included IMA President Jack Lang, a former Minister for Culture and Communications here.
Lang earlier commented Hollande's decision to inaugurate the exhibit as an indication that "the President is expressing the respect he holds for the second religion of France." There are an estimated five to six million Muslims in this country out of a population of 63 million.
Hollande echoed this sentiment by stressing the strength of the ties between France and the Arab and Muslim worlds. Indeed, France holds regular consultations with the Organisation for the Islamic Conference (OIC) to discuss relations and calibrate discussions on various issues.
"France has always wanted to be a nation open to the world...to all influences and people and all cultures and all religions," Hollande said at the IMA.
"And this trait is even more true today in relation to the Arab world and in relation to Islam, when so many of our compatriots are united by their origins or by their beliefs, from North Africa to the Middle East," the President added.
He remarked on the large number of people going from France and Europe to the "Hajj" and said "since a long time...France is attentive to their needs as well." He said that the exhibit expressed through its religious, cultural and humane dimensions a number of important principles and delivered "messages... of tolerance, understanding and recognition." Hollande said that these messages of unity allow us "to affirm the sacred nature of religions but also to denounce their deviation." The "Hajj" exhibit is the most important ever organised in the world and it illustrates the different stages of the pilgrimage undertaken by the pilgrim through a series of works of art, miniatures, embroidery, sculptures, sketches and manuscripts as well as contemporary Saudi works.
While it is certain to draw local populations and foreign visitors, the exhibit also has a pedagogical goal to enlighten people to one of the greatest religions in the world, IMA said. (end) jk.sd