Israel to Ban Public Address Systems

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is backing a bill limiting the volume of calls to prayer from mosques.Advocates have called it a threat to religious freedom.

Channel 4 to 'Provoke' Viewers Who Associate Islam with Terrorism with Live Call to Prayer during Ramadan

THE INDEPENDENT: The broadcaster will provide extensive coverage of the Muslim period of prayer to challenge those who associate the religion with extremism and terror

Channel 4 has said it will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer live every morning during Ramadan as a deliberate act of “provocation” aimed at viewers who associate Islam with terrorism and extremism.

The broadcaster, which was launched with a mission to appeal to minority audiences, will return to its controversial roots by screening a season of programmes around the Muslim period of prayer and fasting, which begins next Tuesday.

A senior Channel 4 executive defended the broadcaster’s decision to provide extensive coverage of the most significant event in the Islamic calendar by suggesting that Ramadan was of greater interest to its viewers than the “blanket coverage” given to the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation by its rivals.

Ralph Lee, head of factual programming, said that Channel 4 would become the first mainstream British television channel to broadcast the call to prayer (adhan) on a daily basis.

Writing in the Radio Times, Lee claimed: “Observing the adhan on Channel 4 will act as a nationwide tannoy system, a deliberate ‘provocation’ to all our viewers in the very real sense of the word.”

Lee said that the “vast majority of people in Britain” would not be aware of the “mass act of personal sacrifice and worship” about to commence.

“Not surprising when you consider its (Ramadan) near invisibility on mainstream TV. Contrast this with the way most Muslims are represented on television – nearly always appearing in contexts related to extremism or terrorism,” he wrote. » | Adam Sherwin | Tuesday, July 02, 2013

RADIO TIMES: Channel 4 exec: broadcasting Muslim call to prayer reflects how Islam is “flourishing” in UK » | Jack Seale | Monday, July 01, 2013

My comment on The Guardian:

First we had David Cameron telling us that the beheading of Lee Rigby was a betrayal of Islam. Then we had the banning of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller from these shores. Now this: the broadcasting of al-adhan each morning on Channel 4 during Ramadhan. What are we to make of this except capitulation? These are sad times for a once strong, proud nation. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Germany Faced with "Loudspeaker Jihad"
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: "First there was no mention of a muezzin when the mosque was inaugurated; then on Fridays only; then three times a day, now five times a day." — Interview in Die Zeit

A Turkish mosque in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has begun sounding public calls to prayer from an outdoor loudspeaker system mounted on the roof of the edifice.

The mosque is one of a growing number of Islamic institutions in Germany (and other parts of Western Europe) publicly calling the Muslim faithful to prayer -- five times a day, seven days a week -- with cries of Allahu Akbar ("Allah is Greater").

Observers believe a precedent has now been established, and that many of the other 3,000 mosques in Germany will soon begin jumping on the muezzin loudspeaker bandwagon.

The sonorous prayer calls (known as adhan in Arabic) can be heard from great distances when amplified through electric loudspeakers; some German towns and cities are actually beginning to evoke the sounds and images of the Islamic Middle East. » | Soeren Kern | Friday, June 28, 2013


Listen to al adhan here

Netanyahu Backs Law to Ban Loudspeakers at Mosques across Israel

THE INDEPENDENT: Cabinet split over Bill that would prevent Muslims from being called to prayer

A highly contentious Bill which threatens to inflame Arab religious and ethnic sensitivities in Israel by clamping down on mosques using loudspeakers for the call to prayer has split the Cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu expressed sympathy this week for the principle behind the Bill, promoted by Anastasia Michaeli, a Knesset member in the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party led by the Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

Ms Michaeli's so-called muezzin Bill would actually ban the use of such loudspeakers in any place of worship, but is clearly directed at mosques used by Israel's mainly Muslim million-plus Arab minority. She has said the Bill comes from "a world view whereby freedom of religion should not be a factor in undermining quality of life".

The Bill is believed to be the first attempt to impose change on calls to worship from mosques since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. This week, Mr Netanyahu postponed discussion of the measure in the key ministerial committee on legislation after it ran into stiff opposition from three prominent ministers in his own Likud Party: Dan Meridor, a Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Eitan, and Limor Livnat. All three argued that it would unnecessarily escalate tensions.

But Mr Netanyahu made it clear that he wanted the issue addressed, saying in reference to curbs in Belgium and France, where officials have imposed bans on street prayer, that "there is no need to be more liberal than Europe".

The Bill, or a version of it, may be put before the ministerial committee next week. » | Donald MacIntyre, Jerusalem | Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Cairo to Use Computerised Call to Prayer After Complaints Over Tuneless Muezzin
THE TELEGRAPH: Cairo is to synchronise the call to prayer across the city's 4,500 mosques using computers to put an end to out of tune and out of time muezzin.

Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo. Photo: The Telegraph
For more than a millennium, the competing calls to prayer intoned from Cairo's thousands of minarets have been one of the city's most distinctive features.

The government this weekend begins a long-heralded project to synchronise the five daily calls to prayer across the city.

Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the ministry of religious endowments is linking all of the mosques in the city, the largest in the Arab world, to a central computerised feed.

"Egyptians have a problem with timing," said Sheikh Salem Abdel-Galil, the ministry official behind the proposal. >>> Richard Spencer | Friday, August 13, 2010

Une ville d'Allemagne autorise l'appel du muezzin
SAPHIR NEWS: Malgré les vives protestations d'une partie de la population, la ville allemande de Rendsburg, au nord de l’Allemagne, a autorisé l'appel à la prière du muezzin lancé par haut-parleur depuis les minarets de la Grande Mosquée, inaugurée en automne 2009, a annoncé, mardi 2 février, le maire social-démocrate, Andreas Breitner. >>> La Rédaction | Mercredi 03 Février 2010

Merz appelle par vidéo au rejet de l’initiative antiminarets
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: PREMIÈRE | Hans-Rudolf Merz appelle au rejet de l’initiative contre les minarets dans une vidéo mise en ligne sur le site du Département fédéral des finances (DFF).

Le président de la Confédération a rappelé la longue tradition de tolérance religieuse en Suisse. Photo crédits : Tribune de Genève
Rappelant la longue tradition de tolérance religieuse en Suisse, le président de la Confédération invite à accepter les symboles d’autres religions. Il a souligné qu’il n’y aura pas d’appel à la prière du muezzin en Suisse.

"Nous vivons dans un pays multiculturel et ouvert", déclare le conseiller fédéral dans son message. Chaque religion arbore ses particularismes architecturaux, qu’il s’agisse d’églises, de synagogues ou de minarets. "J’y vois l’expression de la diversité de notre société". >>> AP | Mardi 17 Novembre 2009



«Den Ruf des Muezzins wird es hier nicht geben»
TAGES ANZEIGER: In einer Videobotschaft ruft Bundespräsident Hans-Rudolf Merz zu einem Nein bei Minarett-Initiative auf. Und erzählt von seiner Zeit in arabischen Ländern.

Bundespräsident Hans-Rudolf Merz ruft in einem Video zur Ablehnung der Minarett-Initiative auf. Religiöse Symbole seien Ausdruck unserer vielfältigen Gesellschaft, sagt er in der am Dienstag auf der Seite des Finanzdepartements aufgeschalteten Botschaft. Den Ruf des Muezzins werde es in der Schweiz aber nicht geben. >>> sam/sda | Dienstag, 17. November 2009

The Muezzin Calling the Faithful to Prayer
The Muezzin’s call to prayer, al-Adhan (the ‘dh’ is pronounced as a ‘heavy’ ‘th’ as in ‘thee’) is a particularly mournful drone to sensitive Western ears. It is a most unfortunate din, one feels. Is this what we want in our own towns and villages? Somehow, I doubt it; yet it might well be coming to Oxford very shortly!

Play the following genuine call of the muezzin. I think you will agree that it doesn’t have the happy tones of the peeling of church bells. But then, no one said that the Qur’an was equivalent to ‘the Good News’, or Gospel. On the contrary, the Qur’an is full of doom and gloom; so we shouldn’t be surprised when the call to prayer in Islam also sounds mournful, also sounds as though the muezzin is in agony! Listen here; see what you think:

Al-Adhan
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Coming to a Town Near You Shortly: The Sonorous Sound of the Muezzin’s Call to Prayer - Al Adhan
The Muezzin’s Call to the Faithful to Prayer
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)