Faith can’t be amplified by mosque loudspeakers

The number of mosques has increased exponentially over the years in Kashmir and so has the number of their loudspeakers. The holy month of Ramadan witnesses prolonged and indiscriminate use of these loudspeakers, much to the discomfort of people, especially patients, exposed to high decibel sounds.

Use of loudspeakers has become a source of contention in many Muslim countries. Last month, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs ordered mosques to shut down external speakers and only resort to the internal one, except during calls for prayers, Friday prayers and Eids. The Saudi officials justified the move saying that people living in the vicinity of the mosques complained of the loud noise of the speakers.

Special teams were constituted to ensure that imams abide by the new regulations during the holy month of Ramadan. Some years back, Saudi government had banned small mosques from using loudspeakers for the nightly tarawih prayer.

In Indonesia, home to world’s largest Muslim population and around 800000 mosques, people have been complaining about the ‘loudspeaker war’ in the neighborhoods having more than one mosque. The complaint may sound quite familiar for many Kashmiris.

According to latest media reports, Indonesia has set up a team to investigate complaints about its mosques being too noisy. Officials of the country’s mosque council gathered samples of noise from places of worship in several cities and found loudspeaker volumes set too high.

Ideally, the call for prayer from a mosque should only be heard in its immediate or catchment area and not beyond. The Indonesian authorities even deployed technicians across the country to help fine-tune mosque loudspeakers and give advice on how best to arrange speakers to reduce noise.

Such measures do not limit the freedom to pray as some people may argue. They only help ensure that the sound that comes out of mosques is more harmonious and soothing.

People living near the mosques, especially the elderly and ailing ones, are exposed to blaring loudspeakers all the time when they are in dire need of rest and silence.

The arbitrary use of loudspeakers had prompted the PDP leader and present Education Minister, Naeem Akhter to voice his concern in his write-ups and facebook posts. He was even prompted to think of selling his house last year. Hindustan Times quoted Akhtar’s Facebook post reading: “I seriously contemplate selling my house even at a discount that proximity to the mosque with a microphone entails.”

In view of the concern voiced by many people, assigned a story on the subject last Ramadan. The news story titled ‘Clarion Call For Judicious Use Of Loudspeakers In Mosques’ carried quotes of various religious scholars, civil society members and health experts, calling for the limited use of loudspeakers within the precincts of the mosques.

Chief cleric and chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had stressed on the need to convince people about the need for restricted use of loudspeakers in mosques. “We will raise this issue and formulate a joint mechanism to start a sustained campaign to make local imams and people aware about the hazards of prolonged usage of the loudspeakers,” Mirwaiz had told. He couldn’t achieve much headway in this regard.

Qazi Mufti Imran of Darul Uloom Bilaliya, Lal Bazar, maintained that unnecessary use of loudspeakers should be avoided. “It should only be used either for calling prayers (Azaan) or on Friday when there is large gathering of people outside the masjids,” Imran had said. Infact, he had put the onus on the local Imams to limit the use of loudspeakers in their mosques.

Noted Kashmiri writer and social activist, Zareef Ahmad Zareef had termed the excessive use of loudspeakers as a “nuisance”, especially with every locality having three to four loudspeakers installed in each mosque. “I don’t understand why we have to chant ‘darood’ on loudspeakers, God can hear us without them (loudspeakers) also,” Zareef had said. In his typical satirical style, Zareef added: “Mashidan shouri shar,dam pathti insaan, bayen takleef dun cha hukmi yazdaan, mangan akhlaq sani lout aaes khudayas, khuda sahab ous tohund lot ti bozan.”

Prolonged exposure to noise has been known to have adverse effects on health and may cause hearing impairment, hypertension and cardiovascular complications besides annoyance and sleep disturbance. Any noise which becomes intolerable for a human ear is harmful. Noises above 115db can even lead to deafness. According to statistics, about 50 percent of those who are exposed to the noise above 80db for a long time lose their hearing. Experts have also reported that exposure of an expecting mother to prolonged noise of loudspeakers can be hazardous for the foetus.

However, it is hard to convince some self-proclaimed custodians of religious affairs about the need to be more judicious in the use of loudspeakers. Some of them even treat the plea to lower the volume of loudspeakers as a blasphemy. It’s difficult to make them understand that faith can’t be amplified by loudspeakers.