There is an interesting debate going on it Egypt. Muslim ccleric and television host, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has taken on the low productivity of Egyptian workers can suggesting less time praying and more time working. What is particularly interesting are studies that show that the average Egyptian government worker only spends 27 minutes a day actually working. No wonder it took so long to build the pyramids.
Qaradawi has argued that “Praying is a good thing [but] 10 minutes should be enough.”
Praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam, but the time spent in prayer is extended by ritual cleaning of the hands and feet.
It is really the 27 minute estimate that I found most striking. This means that in a standard five day work week, the average employee actually works only slightly above two hours. For a whole month, that is less than 15 hours — the equivalent of a single day for some people in trucking, law and other professions. Imagine getting a full year’s salary on less than 180 hours of work. As a rational actor, I am immediately going to buy Arabic language tapes (I figure I will learn just enough to apply and do the rest of studying at work in Cairo).
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apparently, they often show up for 30 minutes and leave. it sounds like that study is limited to govt workers, though. i’m egyptian, and my relatives – professionals in the private sector – work hard.
and those workers are probably not praying the rest of the time, but possibly working another job to make ends meet. i hear bread’s getting pretty expensive these days, even for the “middle class”.
very:
You can thank misguided liberals for the increase in bread cost as a result of their global warming hoax and ethanol fiasco.
As far as the Cleric calling for more work and less prayer; I dare say he will be shown out of town fast because how dare he try to impose man’s requirements over God’s requirements; that is cause for jihad don’t you know….
Is a badger a member of the rodent family or the donkey family? I say the latter.
definitely donkey, because even a rodent knows that these Clerics and Mullahs have enormous influence. and that the poor might have been able to handle the recent spike in food prices if the World Bank/IMF neoliberalist policies (imposed by Reagan/Thatcher) hadn’t further impoverished the Third World over the last 25 years or so.