Mogadishu businesses ordered to close during Friday prayers
Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN) – The administration of the Banaadir region of southern Somalia on Saturday ordered the closure of all business centers in the capital Mogadishu during Friday prayers every week.
The order was issued during a three-party meeting between the justice and religious affairs minister, the mayor of Mogadishu and representatives from the business community in the capital.
“We are telling you that all businesses must be closed during Friday prayers, this is an obligation which has to be applied—we have ordered our security forces to take hard steps against anyone whose business center is found open during Friday prayers,” Mogadishu mayor Mahmoud Ahmed Nur, who is also the governor of the Banaadir region, announced during the meeting.
“We will not accept any justification. I am telling you that from next Friday the order will come to effect,” the mayor added.
For his part, justice and religious affairs minister Abdullaahi Abyan Nur urged the business community to take the orders seriously and know that what they were told was a religious article.
He called on Imams at Mogadishu mosques to implement more religious awareness programs that he said would pave the way for preventing Somali youths from falling into crimes.
This is the first such order from Somalia’s transitional federal government, which is lead by President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the former chief of the Islamic courts who came to power two and half years ago.
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