Worshippers in mosques said to be hard hit by a rash of shoe thefts have described the practice as an act of unspeakable blasphemy against Islam and makes mocking irony of the piety of prayer.
Worshippers of the Masjid Al-Bilal Mosque along Kairaba Avenue and the Pipeline mosque said they are profoundly ashamed by the thieving actions of so-called worshippers, who enter mosques not to worship but to steal.
They said in an average of eight worshippers' shoes are stolen in every prayer time from the early afternoon to dusk. They said even Friday a day Islam set aside for some special prayers are not spared.
Worshippers said Jumua'h prayers are the most favourable time for the thieves to stand alongside worshippers, as they scan the row of shoes and pick out those they consider of value.
According to some of them thieves have been repeatedly caught red handed and subsequently beaten by worshippers who have even grown to become highly suspicious of each other. They said it is a common thing to mistaken other peoples' shoes for one's own, causing quarrels and fights, .
According to one Edrissa Saine mosque leaders have tried with little success to draw attention to the shoe theft scenario. 'But now things will have to change. Instead of beating them and leaving them to go scot-free, they will have to be jailed for at least two weeks' he said.
'Theft in all its forms is an insult to Islam more so if they are committed around a mosque' he said. He warned that anybody caught tarnishing the name of Islam would be mercilessly dealt with. Another concerned personality who preferred anonymity said that similar problems occur regularly at the Pipeline Mosque along Kairaba Avenue. He said with the situation getting from bad to worse everybody should be their own policeman.