While feeling a little bad about it, I am secretly pleased about Royal Air Maroc’s decision — as reported by the
BBC — to ban its employees from praying on company time. On the one hand, it’s obviously rather insensitive to people’s religious beliefs and stigmatizes religion as something suspicious and preferable to avoid. It’s also very much at odds with the trend towards conservatism in the country, both socially and politically (the moderate Islamist PJD looks set to win next year’s parliamentary elections with a margin of about 30%). On the other hand, I am constantly irritated by people praying in offices, especially when they do it in public. I find ostentatious piety (of the kind that is grotesquely abundant in Egypt among both Muslims and Christians) distasteful, especially when it’s shoved in your face constantly and people suddenly start rolling out carpets in the middle of an office, interrupting their (and others’) work and contributing to the already very palpable social pressure to become more outwardly religious. I know many people who pray but do it in prayer rooms or mosques and avoid making a display of themselves while doing it — which seems to me to be the socially and religiously correct way to do things.
All this being said, this kind of action (rather than, say, imposing strict guidelines on when and where people can pray in public offices) will play straight into the hands of Moroccan’s populist Islamists who love to campaign on the secularist conspiracy that’s everywhere. And it creates this false dichotomy between Islamists, who want to wear their religion on their sleeves and think invasive forms of public piety are a type of dawa, and perhaps equally religious Muslims who think that their faith is a private thing and have the good taste not be ostentatious about it.
This episode reminds me a bit of Tunisia’s recent statement that it would ban the niqab. In principle, I find the niqab abhorrent. But do you really want to have a state that legislates what people can and can’t wear, or for that matter endorse the Tunisian regime, one of the vilest in the region?
Oddly enough, some “new Islamists” might actually agree with RAM’s policy – Baker cites Shaykh al-Ghazali criticising a public employee for turning away from his customers to go and pray, saying that doing one’s work dutifully and serving people was as much a requirement of Islam as praying. But of course that’s not the way that most pious people would see it.
And you could conceivably argue that if it’s really about ensuring productivity and not cracking down on people who are too religious for state/elite comfort, they’d ban most internet sites from office computers too…
“Good taste”? What the hell is your problem? I’m required to pray at set times. There are no prayer rooms here. I’m not gonna hide in the bathroom to pray because your pseudo-intellectual ilk think I’m doing it to show off, or find it ostentatious. Ostentatious, Issandr, is you dropping names of writers you know every couple of lines, or quoting all your favorite academics, to name two on the list. Didn’t have you figured for a liberal hypocrite, but I guess you learn something new everyday on the Arabist.
Depite being a complete heathen, I really don’t have a problem with people praying at work or in public or whatever. I had a lapsed catholic friend who had a huge issue with people walking around with crosses or putting crosses up in their homes. His problem, he later admitted to us and himself, was his discomfort at being confronted with something he had decided to ignore.
What’s wrong with praying? I don’t mind sitting next to someone of different race and religion, praying, whether they do it in private or openly.
It’s their right.
Looks just like the Americanisation to me.
Re-reading the BBC article, it seems that RAM is going to stop people from running round to the neighbourhood mosque and shut down prayer rooms in their offices too, so I wonder where they expect people to pray if not just wherever they happen to be at prayer time.
Re: the five times prayer requirement, isn’t there a special prayer that you can say to make up for the prayers missed while you were working?
I’m not a hypocrite. I’ve always been quite open about my personal distaste for religion and the fact that I’m surrounded by religious people has not stopped me from saying so. I do think prayer rooms should be provided, though, if only to avoid prayer corridors.
As for “Americanization”, I find some Americans incredibly ostentatious about their religion, whatever it may be that particular week. Especially in public schools.
oh and you are only required to pray at certain intervals, not at specific moments, I know this is something many muslims ignore for some reason but you don’t have to rush and pray the moment you hear the azan.
Salam, I actually feel kind of like Issandr, it is a bit off putting when people make a show out of praying; at my last workplace before leaving Egypt a lot of people prayed in the office but they would do it in an empty cubicle or something and were very tasteful about it. I found it very positive and spiritual. I don’t find it positive or spiritual when people make a big deal out of the fact taht they pray. I think the airlines should not prohibit praying but should provide a private space for it.
Alaa, they probably “ignore” the allowance because it’s considered preferable to pray ASAP, rather than put it off like a nasty chore.
And no, no particular prayer, just a different intention and doing the prayer later as a last resort, generally only acceptable if you dozed off and missed it, forget, or are engaged in a war. Not because people around you think you’re pretentious for obeying your religion.
I’ve dealt with many people who find religion distastful. Generally, they’re respectful enough to just not comment when I go about my business and do what my religion requires me to do.
I’d like to think that people aren’t falling over themselves to impress you with their religiosity, Issandr.
Comsic, do you pray because you want to or because it is required? Is external observation more important than internal observation? Do you suffer from religious fetishism?
Atle, I pray even if I’m home alone, where no one can see me. I also work in an office surrounded by non-Muslims, and I pray there, and no one minds. External and internal observation are both required in Islam. Logically, without “internal” observation, an external act is meaningless.
My nephew is of 5 years old.He is suffering from brain tumor and is operated today.
I pray to the almighty to bless the child and give him good health and life.
Lord, please give his life back.
Give him your blessing.
Thank You
Virender