One problem that Islam has in competing with other cultures in the modern economy is that the requirement to pray five times a day -- after a ritual cleansing -- interrupts the flow of work. Even as institutions in the west seek to accommodate Muslim employees and students parts of the Islamic world are wrestling with over long prayer rituals that have gotten entirely out of control.

"Praying is a good thing ... 10 minutes should be enough," Al-Jazeera television personality Qaradawi says in a religious edict, or fatwa, published on his website. 

"He's right. I cannot say the contrary. One must not waste time at work and use prayer as the pretext," Sheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf, of the centre of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's main seat of learning, told AFP.

s for Mohammed al-Shahhat al-Gendi, secretary general of the Council of Supreme Islamic affairs, "10 minutes are absolutely suitable for one prayer. Improving productivity is not at all contrary to Islam,"