More than Half of mosques in Saudi Arabia without imams

According to a statistical report issued by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance, More than half of the mosques in the Kingdom do not have permanent imams to lead regular prayers, reported saudigazette.

The report, covering the year 2017, said 51.5 percent of the mosques in the Kingdom were without formal imams, 63 percent did not have muezzins and 90.5 percent were without specialists and cleaners to deal with them. 

The report said the Northern Border Province was the main locale with region imams.The region had 806 imams for 642 mosques.

It said no other region had imams in overabundance of the quantity of mosques. Despite what might be expected, there was a lack of imams in a few areas, the report called attention to. 

The report, conveyed by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat), said the aggregate number of mosques in the Kingdom in 2017 was 98,800 while there were just 47,315 imams, 36,549 muezzins and 9,371 cleaners. 

The report said this essentially implied 51.5 percent of mosques in the Kingdom were without official imams. 

As indicated by the report, there were 18,073 mosques, 13,330 imams, 10,354 muezzins and 3,097 cleaners in Riyadh, 17,263 mosques and 6,564 imams in Makkah, 6,681 mosques and 2,758 imams in Madinah and 7,341 mosques and 4,862 imams in Qassim.