• Culture & development

Culture & development

This brief estimates the impact on pilgrims of performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. It results from a survey of 1605 successful and unsuccessful Sunni Hajj applicants from Pakistan, five to eight months after the 2006 Hajj.

The authors explain that  accounts from pilgrims stress that the Hajj leads to a feeling of unity with fellow Muslims, but outsiders have sometimes feared that this could be accompanied by antipathy toward non-Muslims. The paper finds that participation in the Hajj increases observance of global Islamic practices such as prayer and fasting, while decreasing participation in localised practices and beliefs such as the use of amulets and dowry.

The Hajj increases belief in equality and harmony among ethnic groups and Islamic sects, and leads to more favorable attitudes toward women, including greater acceptance of female education and employment. Increased unity within the Islamic world is not accompanied by antipathy toward non-Muslims. Instead, Hajjis show increased belief in peace, and in equality and harmony among adherents of different religions.

The paper concludes by looking at policy implications which include:

• the impact of an event like the Hajj demonstrates that even deep-rooted attitudes such as religious beliefs and views about other social groups can be changed
• although lacking a common language to communicate, mixing with others across national, sectarian, and gender lines can help promote tolerance - not only towards fellow participants but, even more significantly, toward those who are not part of the experience 
• from a policy perspective, the Hajj highlights the danger of separation and of raising protective walls - if there is a broader lesson to draw from the Hajj study, it is that bridges help and walls hurt.

One can readily apply standard social science tools to concepts like the social role of religion, uncover hard evidence, and potentially shed new light on the policy debate around such topics. This is especially salient today for the Arab and Muslim world. While there is a huge interest in Islam, with much attention devoted to the topics of terrorism and international security, the current literature rarely draws on tools from quantitative social science and often lacks hard evidence.

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