Showing posts with label muezzin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label muezzin. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Other Countries Muffle Mosques, But Israel Cannot? - Aviel Schneider ISRAEL TODAY

Other Countries Muffle Mosques, But Israel Cannot?

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 |  Aviel Schneider  ISRAEL TODAY
Quite the controversy is raging over Israel’s proposed legislation aimed at muffling the five daily Muslim calls to prayer from local mosques. In recent decades, the call of the muezzin has been amplified by multiple loudspeakers, resulting in tremendous noise pollution starting at 4:30 AM every morning.
While Jewish residents have been most vocal in complaining about the muezzin loudspeakers, local Muslims have expressed outrage over the bill, which last week gained approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Arab Members of Knesset say the bill will limit religious freedom for Muslims in the country, and the Palestinian Authority has threatened to take the matter to the UN Security Council.
But when pressed on the issue, many local Muslims admit that the volume of the muezzin’s call is often excessive.
Nor has similar legislation in Muslim countries ever elicited such opposition.
In Egypt, for example, the use of loudspeakers to amplify the muezzin’s call is restricted. Muslim scholars at Al-Azhar University previously determined that the loudspeakers are a modern invention, and therefore have nothing to do with the Islamic law that mandates calling the faithful to prayer.
The spokesman for the Israel Embassy in London reminded everyone via Twitter that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also has a problem with noise pollution as a result of amplified daily calls to prayer.
The Arabic-language daily The National reported in 2011 that the UAE had limited the volume of mosque loudspeakers following repeated complaints by Muslim residents.
In June 2015, the AFP reported that Indonesia’s vice president had established an investigative committee to look into the problem of noise pollution caused by mosque loudspeakers. As the largest Muslim population country in the world, Indonesia has hundreds of thousands of mosques all blaring their calls to prayer at the same time.
Even in Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, the government ruled that calls to prayer could only be amplified by a mosque’s indoor loudspeakers, and no longer using the loudspeakers fixed to the top of the minaret. The Arabic-language news portal Arab News reported over a year ago that Saudi imams had been required to remove the loudspeakers atop their minarets.
In Europe, Switzerland decided nine years ago to ban minarets altogether, and in Cologne, Germany approval to build a new mosque was only granted in 2007 after the local Muslim community undertook in write not to use loudspeakers to amplify its calls to prayer.
None of these decisions resulted in international crises.
The fact is that the excessive volume of the muezzin is a nuisance first and foremost to Muslim residents, and that includes in Israel. I personally know many Muslims in the Jerusalem area who can’t stand the daily harassment of the loudspeakers.
But the moment Israel’s government dares to intervene (and in exactly the same way as Muslims governments have in recent years) it is accused of being discriminatory and racist.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Israel Wants to Muffle Muslim Call to Prayer - Israel Today

Israel Wants to Muffle Muslim Call to Prayer

Monday, November 14, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday approved a proposed bill that would put an end Muslim calls to prayer being blasted over loudspeakers across Israel.
Known as the muezzin, this mosque official is supposed to call the faithful to prayer from a mosque’s minaret five times every day. Modern mosques, like those found in most cities in Israel, amplify that call using multiple loudspeakers.
The so-called “muezzin bill” is aimed at protecting the rights of those Israelis, most non-Muslims, who don’t want such Islamic practices imposed upon their lives.
“The bill comes from a view that freedom of religion should not harm quality of life,” the bill’s creator, Member of Knesset Moti Yogev (Jewish Home), was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post.
Netanyahu offered his backing, noting that “Israel is committed to freedom for all religions, but is also responsible for protecting its citizens from noise. That’s how it is in cities in Europe. I support similar legislation and enforcement in Israel.”
The bill has received the approval of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and must now be submitted for voting in the Knesset plenum.
As expected, Arab Muslim politicians slammed the bill as “racist.”
“Its whole goal is to create an atmosphere of hatred and incitement towards the Arab public,” insisted Joint Arab List party head Ayman Odeh.
But most Israelis would argue that it is in fact “racist” and hostile to impose religious practices upon those who are not members of your own religion.
Odeh and other critics also ignored the fact that the new bill does not prohibit the call of the muezzin, just the use of loudspeakers to amplify that call and thereby disturb the peace.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas threatened that if signed into law, the measure would “drag the region to disaster.”
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