Manama: Qatar’s largest mosque has announced that it will ban children under the age of seven at Isha (evening prayers) and Taraweeh prayers (the last evening prayer.)
“We are sorry to make this decision, but we have received several complaints from worshippers about the disturbance caused by young children,” Shaikh Malallah Bin Abdul Rahman Al Jaber, the Mosque Directorate in charge of the Imam Mohammad Bin Abdul Wahab Mosque in Doha, said.
“We are forced to impose the ban both at the men’s prayer hall and at the women’s prayer hall, to ensure that worshippers are not annoyed by the brouhaha of underage children. We urge all parents to comply with the new rule,” the Qatari daily Al Sharq reported him as saying on Sunday.
Mosques are meant to be for worshipping God and must not be turned into anything else, he said. Worshippers have complained that the large halls have been turned into playgrounds or nurseries for children.
