I, T, have been frequenting the same Turkish barber shop close to our compound for months. In the evenings, the shop often gets very crowded but rarely one needs to wait for more than five minutes. Only exception is if you accidentally show up just before or during Salat, i.e. obligatory prayer.
The other night I somehow miscalculated the correct ending time for the day's last prayer. When I got to the barber shop, my "standard guy" was sipping coffee (Turkish, I presume) with his friends outside. I assumed that the prayer would be over in few minutes but actually it was only halfway through.
Suddenly, out of the dust appeared a Haia SUV (see the bottom part of this page for some photos of their cruisers), the religious police of Saudi Arabia which mission is to prevent vice and promote virtue. At the same time, all the Turkish guys began to flee.
You see, one of most visible duties performed by Haia is to ensure nobody forgets the obligatory prayers. If you are a Muslim or muttawas, the religious policemen, think you are, there rarely are excuses for not praying. This unfortunate Saher employee making roads of Madinah safer learned that the hard way.
My "standard guy" who apparently is not religious at all decided to hide behind of some cars parked next to the barber shop instead of calmly walking away with his colleagues. As a westerner non-Muslim I was just standing there and following the scene amazed. Soon the guy changed his mind and started to whisper to me "Where is your car? Where is your car?"
Luckily my car was parked only few meters away from the spot. We both hopped in and talked about many things for some 10 minutes until the prayer was over and muttawas had left. I guess offering the asylum was my good deed of that day.
