“Too much heat, too much sunshine,” says Mohammed Imran, tapping his fingers on a counter.
Mr Imran is one of hundreds who spends Fridays praying on the streets of Mussaffah, the industrial district on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
In the cool winter months, as at present, the impact is negligible.
But in the summer, the pavements get so hot from temperatures approaching 50°C that he moves his feet back and forth like a skittish cat. Worst still, he says, is when he kneels and puts his sweating forehead to the ground in supplication.
"First the feet burn, then the head," said Mr Imran, 30. "So much burns. The ground is too hot. It gets so you cannot stand on the ground to pray."
As the industrial area of Mussaffah grows and its makeshift caravan-mosques disappear, workers are forced to pray on the streets.
Those interviewed said the situation has not improved since The National visited in June 2015, when we reported on thousands praying outside the Industrial City Abu Dhabi (Icad) labour accommodations.
The Icad complex is home to 26,000 workers and has one of the few mosques in the area, attracting not just its own residents but men like Mr Imran who work in the area. The situation has not improved since Mr Imran arrived five years ago to work at the nearby Qamar Punjab Restaurant.
It is not just at Icad. A five-minute drive away, the Abdullah bin Shaiban #269 mosque overflows on Fridays and during Ramadan. It has a total capacity of 1,200 worshippers but its imam estimates that 2,000 attend Friday prayers.
In wealthier neighbourhoods, families donate to local mosque construction but Mussaffah is home to low-income workers who earn hundreds of dirhams a month, not thousands.
“People are poor and they’re not able to pray here the nationals and the people with money are in other areas,” said its imam of 29 years, Moluana Fairouz Ahmed. “This is a working area for the poor.”
Imam Ahmed keeps sermons short in summer to accommodate workers.
“There are not many places to pray,” he said. “The whole area is full on Friday. Mussaffah was small and now it’s become big, as big as Abu Dhabi, mashallah. We need more mosques.”
For years, the solution was the humble porta-mosque, caravans and temporary concrete structures colourfully decorated with posters of Mecca and crescents cut from plywood. These simply structures were once plentiful in Mussaffah.
In 2008, the construction permits director at the Abu Dhabi Municipality, Khalfan Al Nuaimi, declared that mosques should be "nice buildings" and said "the idea of the temporary mosque is finished" .
A few months later, the Mosque Development Committee was established under Falah Al Ahbabi, general manager of the Urban Planning Council (UPC), to set guidelines for the development and management of all mosques in compliance with Plan Abu Dhabi 2030.
Mr Al Ahbabi said guidelines to be issued in 2010 would "define the urban character of the city" and "preserve Abu Dhabi's Emirati, Arab and Islamic identity".
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Read more:
A simple prayer: the UAE’s porta-mosques
No walls, but plenty of support for this Abu Dhabi mosque
How Mussafah is undergoing a quiet transformation
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At the same time the mosques have disappeared, Mussaffah’s population has quickly grown, representing a fifth of Abu Dhabi’s commercial licences.
Traditionally a labour area, it is growing popular with the middle class.
The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council and the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments did not respond when approached for comment about future plans to build more mosques in the area.
But under Future Vision of Mussaffah plan, approved by the Abu Dhabi Exeuctive Council in 2016, will see government investments in its roads and a 7.5-kilometre water front development.
“In Mussaffah, this is the main thing. There are not many mosques,” said Sabir Zaman, 24, a taxi driver who regularly worships at Abdullah bin Shaiban #269 mosque.
Driving around, he points to empty spaces and the absence of minarets. "Look, here is no mosque. No mosque here. You look in all areas, you look - no mosque."
Mr Zaman struggles to pray in his room, which he shares with 16 people. Praying in the space between triple-bunks can be tricky but it is easier than standing on the road in summer when temperatures routinely exceed 40°C. However, the taxi driver has little choice during Ramadan, when the mosques are so busy that there is no space in the mosque or anywhere around it.
“In Ramadan, especially, I pray in my room. The mosque is far. We are forced. Praying is a necessity.”
Mr Zaman’s suggestion is a simple one.
“Make more mosques. This is very necessary.”
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.