Armoured cars, hundreds of soldiers in full combat gear, dozens of anti-riot police, a sinister-looking black water cannon and a helicopter on Friday ensured the weekly prayers in mosques passed off without incident.
"Omanis are not greedy. We don't want too much, but we do want change and we want to be able to make a living and raise our families," said a 28-year-old onlooker in Oman's traditional "kumma" white flat cap and dishdasha robe.
"We should also be a well-off country, like our neighbours. We have oil, we have gas, we have gold," said the young man, who himself works for Oman's police force.
Inspired by uprisings across the Arab world, demonstrators at the southeast corner of the Middle East where 40 percent of the population are under 15 have been agitating for jobs, economic benefits and an end to corruption in Oman.
Sultan Qaboos, ruler for the past four decades, has grown "out of touch with his people," said the policeman, stressing that Omanis like others caught up in the "Arab spring" of revolt were no longer afraid to speak their mind.
"Those soldiers over there, they only earn a monthly salary of 300 riyals ($780), like me. How can a family live on that?" he said. "If I was working in Qatar or Dubai, I would be making at least double that amount."
A group of expats from the Indian sub-continent watched from a safe distance as the show of force outside mosques ensured that Friday -- on the surface -- passed off as a "day of love and tolerance" as called for by the authorities.
"The sultan has given them so much but all they want to do is sit at home and do nothing," complained a Bangladeshi who works at a gold mine in the dark, jagged mountains outside town.
In Muscat, 200 kilometres (120 miles) to the south of Sohar, pro-reform demonstrators are keeping up a sit-in demonstration despite offers on the table from Sultan Qaboos.
In the face of protests, in which two people have been shot dead, he has announced the creation of 50,000 new jobs, a monthly allowance for registered job-seekers and a higher minimum wage for Omani private-sector workers.
And the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council is to set up a $10-billion development fund for its two least wealthy members, Oman and Bahrain.
The sultan, on the political front, has granted legislative powers to the Oman Council, or parliament, and sacked ministers accused by demonstrators of corruption in a major cabinet reshuffle.
On the security front, dozens of alleged ringleaders of the unrest have been detained and the authorities have announced the seizure of arms and petrol-bombs allegedly for use at protests.
Qaboos himself seized power in 1970 from his father, Said bin Taimur, who sealed off Oman from the outside world and kept it undeveloped, with paved roads, electricity, education and health care almost non-existent.
On March 29, the army stormed Sohar's Earth roundabout, forcibly dismantling a month-long protest by pro-reform demonstrators camped at the site.
Facing the manicured lawns of the roundabout with its globe paying tribute to Oman's maritime and horsing heritage, the Indian-owned Lulu Hypermarket with its blackened walls tells of the anger and frustration of many Omanis.
The building has been boarded up since a loot-till-you-drop frenzy which accompanied the protests at the end of February when buildings near the roundabout were set ablaze.
Left behind is graffiti which warns that "the anger of the youth is a volcano," not far from a sign at the exit from the car park which reads: "Thank you for shopping at Lulu."
A young expat engineer at Sohar's aluminium plant who as a teenager witnessed the end of apartheid in South Africa said that Omanis were "just too soft" to carry out a forceful protest movement.
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