Saudis provide mobile prayer rugs for football fans

RIYADH - Saudi religious police are laying prayer rugs in the streets to encourage football fans not to miss their prayers when watching World Cup matches, news reports said Sunday.

Small rugs have been rolled out at specially assigned places in Tahlia Street, one of Riyadh’s main thoroughfares, where football lovers gather to watch World Cup matches on giant television screens.

Sabq news website reported that most people supported the idea, which will continue as long as World Cup matches clash with prayer times in areas where mosques are not at hand.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day. Rugs are used to ensure that the area used for praying is clean.

Known as the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”, the religious police is a government entity which enforces a strict dress code, segregation of the sexes and makes sure no one misses prayers.