DOHA: Imams in several mosques across the country focused in their Friday sermons yesterday on the Mayan doomsday predictions for the day that proved to be a hoax as suggested by scientists from all over the world, including a famous Qatari astronomer, Sheikh Salman bin Jabor Al Thani.
Sheikh Salman had hinted in remarks to this newspaper that insurance companies in some countries where people were panicking were fanning the fear to make a fast buck.
According to him, although Qatar is a Muslim society there were some in the community who did believe that the Mayan predictions could be true.
An imam in Ahmed Yusuf Al Jaber mosque in Al Hilal said in his Friday sermon that he was surprised a large number of people were swayed by the Mayan predictions of the doomsday.
“Those who came and asked me about these predictions included some highly educated people,” he said in his sermon that began at around 11.30am before the Friday prayers.
He said that enough signs of the doomsday have been talked about in Islam and unless they are evident, Muslims should not lend ears to such bogus tales as those propagated by the so-called Mayans.
The imam said that some signs of the doomsday that have been talked about in Islam are indeed visible such as natural calamities hitting one part or the other on this plant and the earth becoming hotter, but still those signs are hazy and the doomsday is far away. The sky would appear red when the doomsday approaches, he said. The imam leading Friday prayers in Bukhari mosque in the same locality (Hilal East) also spoke of the doomsday and said it was a hoax.
A devout who attended the prayers in the Bukhari mosque later told this newspaper that even he was a little scared and heaved a sigh of relief at the end of the day when it began becoming darker with no indications of the world coming to an end as predicted by the ancient Mayans. The Peninsula
