Mosques face up to pandemic as Friday prayers bring coronavirus risk

A man wearing a protective mask as a measure of prevention against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) attends Friday prayers outside Abdel Rahman Mosque in the Cairo neighborhood Maadi, Egypt March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

JAKARTA/ISTANBUL/MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The coronavirus stopped communal Muslim prayers for the first time in living memory in many mosques from Indonesia to Morocco on Friday, but in some places believers have defied medical advice to join together in worship.

In Islam's holiest sanctuary in Mecca, the usually crowded courtyard around the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, towards which all Muslims pray, was silent and empty.