SYDNEY – A video showing a Muslim man praying in a street gutter in front of a packed Sydney beachside pub has gone viral.

Speaking Monday to the Daily Mail Australia about the video, Islamic Council of Victoria Vice President Adel Salman said, “I’ve prayed on the street many times, also parks, airport terminals and even football grounds.

“We pray five times a day so if we have no access to a mosque or prayer room, we find a relatively quiet, clean tidy place.

“He probably didn’t want to risk missing his evening prayer.”

The footage was filmed from Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs just before 8 pm on Sunday night.

It shows the man rolling out his prayer mat on the busy street, seemingly unfazed by his position in the gutter, wedged between two cars, as he set himself up to pray.

Finishing his prayer, the man stands up, collects his mat from the roadside, and puts it back in his car.

Salman praised the man’s choice not to be inconvenient to passersby.

“The last thing we want to do is inconvenience people when we perform prayers, we are very sensitive to our surrounds,” he said.

Muslims pray five times a day, with each prayer made up of a series of postures and movements, each set of which is called a rak‘ah.

The five prayer times are divided all through the day which starts with Fajr prayer at dawn.