King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has decided to increase the Hajj quota.

The king made this decision, upon a request of the Hajj Ministry of Saudi Arabia. The king has decided to increase the quota for Saudi’s and foreigners who wishes to perform Hajj. The amount increased has not yet been revealed.

For the past decade, the quota was decreased due to the upgrading projects of Masjid Al-Haram. Quota for foreign countries was decreased by 20 percent while quota for Saudi was decreased by 50 percent.

The second phase of the project has been completed and they have started the third phase of the project. In 2007, 2.4 million people performed Hajj while this year only 1.8 million people performed Hajj. Due to security reasons the Hajj quota for 2016 was at an all-time low.
Due to the King’s decision to increase the Hajj quota, Islamic countries around the world are celebrating and thanking the King.