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Piety or noise pollution? Indonesia tackles call to prayer volume backlash
The noisy neighbour is the local mosque in her Jakarta suburb, and the clamorous sound is the call to prayer.
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This aerial picture taken on September 7, 2021 shows officials inspecting the mosque's speakers in Jakarta. There are around 750,000 mosques across Indonesia -- a medium sized venue could have at least a dozen external loudspeakers that blare the call to prayer five times a day. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
E
very night at 3:00 am, Rina is jolted awake by blaring speakers so loud she has developed an anxiety disorder: she can't sleep, she's too nauseous to eat -- but she is also too scared to complain because doing so could see her jailed or attacked.
The noisy neighbour is the local mosque in her Jakarta suburb, and the clamorous sound is the call to prayer.
Both are so sacred in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority nation, that criticising them can lead to accusations of blasphemy, a crime punishable by as much as five years imprisonment.
"None dares to complain about it here," says Rina, a 31-year-old Muslim woman who is using a pseudonym in case of reprisals.
"The loudspeakers are not only used for call to prayer but they also use it to wake people up 30-40 minutes before the morning prayer time," she tells AFP, adding that she is at breaking point after enduring the noise for six months.
Online complaints about noisy loudspeakers are increasing, but the lack of anonymity and fear of a backlash means there are no reliable official statistics. Aware of the growing discord, the Indonesian Mosque Council (IMC) is deploying teams to tackle mosque sound systems around the nation -- but it's a delicate subject.
Indonesia was once hailed for its religious tolerance with people of many faiths living alongside each other, but there are concerns its moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from hardliners.
