Unpaid Saudi imam locks worshippers out

RIYADH - Worshippers who arrived to pray at a mosque in a remote area of central Saudi Arabia this week discovered they were locked out by the disgruntled imam because he had not been paid.

Al-Yaum newspaper reported Sunday that the imam, a Sudanese national, had been told a philanthropist would pay for his services as spiritual leader of the small mosque in Najd region. But the benefactor withdrew the funding after local religious authorities failed to confirmed the cleric as the official imam.

The worshippers, angry at being prevented from Friday prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, have failed to convince the imam to re-open the mosque.