MALAPPURAM: Muslim organizations plan to reduce use of loudspeakers at mosques for prayer calls and other religious programmes
The Muslim organizations in Kerala have come forward to restrict the use of loudspeakers at mosques for prayer calls (banku vili) and other religious programmes including religious speeches and meetings. The Muslim Service Society (MSS) will hold a meeting of the Muslim organizations in Kozhikode next week to take a final call on the matter. The MSS state general secretary, T.K. Abdul Kareem told TNIE the representatives of all religious groups - EK Sunnis, AP Sunnis, Mujahid, Jamaat-e-Islami - will participate in the meeting.
According to the MSS, the firm stands earlier taken on the matter by Panakkad Sayed Hyderali Shihab Thangal, the Kerala State president of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the vice president of the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, a supreme body of an Islamic scholar's council in Kerala and C Muhammed Faizy, the state haj committee chairman, inspired them to organize the meeting of the Muslim organizations.
Thangal in a statement earlier said when conducting prayers and other religious ceremonies, the volume of the loudspeakers should not disturb the people who are not part of the function. Muhammed Faizy said some mosques in the state use loudspeakers which creates more volume than actually required for the area. "Loudspeaker with a capacity to call 1000 people are being used in some areas, where we actually need to call just 100 people," Faizy said.
Explaining the agendas of the meeting, Abdul Kareem said the meeting aims to reduce the use of loudspeakers at the mosques. "At present, 5 or 6 mosques in a small area give prayer calls at different times - in a gap of a few minutes. We plan to introduce a rotation system for prayer calls for a particular area. If there are many mosques in an area, we will grant permission to one mosque to give a prayer call for a certain term. The prayer call from the particular mosque - it may be a mosque of the Sunnis, Mujahid, or Jamaat-e-Islami - should be taken as the call for all groups in the area. Through it, we can reduce the number of prayer calls through loudspeakers at a time," Kareem said.
Kareem also said they would urge the mosques to conclude the religious speeches and other functions at the mosques on or before 10 PM. "The religious programmes - especially the ones with speakers or loudspeaker - should be concluded at 10 PM to avoid inconvenience to other people," he said. He also noted these are just plans of the Muslim religious organizations, but the final decisions on these views will be taken at the next-week meeting of the Muslim organizations.