GOING to football matches is no excuse for skipping Islam’s weekly Friday prayers, the Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Nasser Farid Wassel, has ruled. “Sporting meetings are no excuse to miss Friday prayers,” said the mufti who called on the Egyptian authorities to “stop clashing” with the weekly Moslem noontime prayers. “Anyone who stops Moslems from doing their duty is commiting a grave sin,” Sheikh Wassel said in a statement to the liberal opposition daily newspaper Al-Wafd on Tuesday. Most sporting events, football matches in particular, take place on Fridays about two hours after the midday prayers, but fans begin flocking to stadiums from late morning. The Sheikh is a progressive who has advanced the status of women under Islam in Egypt.