The authorities in Cairo have come up with an excellent idea to rid the city of the cacophony of competing mosque loudspeakers there. They will be fitting all the mosques with receivers so that they will rebroadcast the call of a single muezzin from the state radio station. The muezzin will be one of a panel of 30 chosen for the harmoniousness of their voices.
There is, of course, opposition from the hundreds of muezzins who will be put out of business, but the alternative suggested would be to call the adzan as they used to do for nearly 1,400 years - by climbing the minarets and using their unaided voices.
Let's do the same here. (Rafiq Mahmood, Bogor, West Java)
Your comments:
In the days of Prophet Mohammad, they didn't use loudspeakers. Why can't they allow the call to prayer remain as it was originally done?
Vanu
Jakarta
I agree with this idea. Here, there are so many mosques in a neighborhood, so unaided voices when a muezzin performs adzan have been enough.
Nurul Utami
Bandar Lampung
The adzan on TV and radio sounds grand but some from local mosques can be funny or quite annoying; but at the same time, uniform adzan all the time can be bluntly boring.
Eremem
Jakarta
I disagree. The canon-sound of the multiple muezzins gives a special charm that will be lost if this is changed.
In addition, it reminds us of the diversity of the people. One voice given by the state radio is a bit like communism enforcing its propaganda.
Paolo L. Scalpini
Toulouse, France
I completely disagree with Rafiq. The adhan used to be called with only unaided voices before! But the answer is obvious!
There was no loudspeaker at that time! We have to benefit from the technology as everyone does! Besides, using only one person to call adhan will cause people to forget Islamic values!
Ali Kazakh
Jakarta
The call was originally used to remind people that it was time for prayer. That was when no one had watches. Everyone has watches now so why the call? In fact there is no need for the call all!
Peter
Jakarta
