Riyadh/Mumbai: In a major move that will check noise pollution, Saudi Arabia has issued directives to limit the use of external loudspeakers in mosques.
As reported by Saudi Gazette, a prominent local English Daily, Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance Sheikh Dr. Abdul Latif Bin Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh has set the number of external loudspeakers used in mosques to make the calls for prayer (adhan) at four.
Dr. Al-Sheikh has instructed to remove external loudspeakers exceeding four from all mosques and store the extra ones in a warehouse for later use or distribute them to mosques that do not have enough numbers of them, the newspaper said.
Efforts to lower the noise volume from external loudspeakers installed on the minarets have always been on card even among Muslims in other parts of the world, including India.
Back in 2014, a group of Muslim NGOs in Mumbai while expressing concerns over the rising misuse of loudspeakers from mosque minarets, suggested that they were actually defeating the very purpose for which the muezzins make call for the mandatory prayers.
The matter however sometimes takes communal turn with some right wing organisations using it for polarising the society and promoting their anti-Muslim agenda and communal politics.
Following a similar outrage by right wing Hindu organisations, the governments in some Indian states had banned the mosques from using loudspeakers, especially for morning prayers.
The wise among the Muslims in India however realise that "high volume loudspeakers" indeed disturb general public. They are of the view that the mosque managements and trusts should come forward and voluntarily lower the noise volume of external speakers.
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