Hajji (Persian: حاجی, Arabic: الحجّي al-ḥağğī, Greek: Χατζη, Bosnian: Hadžija, Turkish: Hacı, pilgrim; sometimes spelled Hadji or Haji), or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca,[1] and is often used to refer to an elder, since it takes time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name (For instance John Smith becomes Hajji John Smith). It is derived from the Arabic al-Hajj. In some areas, the title has been handed down the generations, and has become a family name. Such usage can be seen, for example, in the Bosniak surname Hadžiosmanović, which means son of Hajji Osman.
Women who complete the Hajj are referred to as Hajja.[2]
The term is also used in the Balkan Christian countries who were once under Ottoman domination (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia and Romania) for a Christian who had travelled to Jerusalem.
Hajji has become a catch-all slur used by the U.S. military service members for any Arab person in Iraq and it surrounding countries. It can also be used as a descriptive word (such as "Hajji Shop" to describe the locals' stores) as well as a pejorative descriptive word (such as "Hajji Armor" to describe flak jacket-covered car bombers)or used in a sentence; (we are going to move out and blast some bad hajjis, and we got to find some big bearded hajji named Khaled Rhamadi or something. Apperently he smuggles hajji weapons like Uzi's and Ak's, we are dealing with some crazy hajjis!) this shows the discrimination used by the US troops in the Middle East.
The use of Hajji in this way can be seen throughout the news series Black in America, Generation Kill, and The Hurt Locker.
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