Kerala ex-minister booked for ‘hate speech’ on Muslim call to prayer

While slamming Pillai’s comments, Jamaat-e-Islami mouthpiece Madhyamam, in an editorial on Thursday, called for Muslim organisations to introspect on the issue.

The editorial said Muslim organisations should review the use of loudspeakers from all mosques in a locality. “Why can’t they accept one mosque using a loudspeaker in a region? The five-time call is meant to inform people about the time of prayer. The use of loudspeakers during special occasions has become rampant in recent period. One cannot understand the pertinence of using loudspeakers for night prayers in the month of Ramadan,” said the editorial.

Jamaat-e-Islami Kerala Ameer M A Abdul Azeez said there was a strong line of thought within the community in favour of restricting the use of loudspeakers. “We have discussed the matter among various Muslim organisations and apprised them of the necessity of limiting the use of speakers,” he said.

The issue could be resolved if the prayer time of Muslim segments is unified, he added. “One segment has fixed prayer times, which are different from another segment, leading to repeated calls for prayer from various mosques in a city or region,” he explained.

According to community scholars, mosques under the Sunni faction usually make the call to prayer over loudspeakers five minutes after the same exercise is conducted by mosques under the Mujahideen segment.

Sunni leader Nazir Faisy Koodathai said, “In a pluralistic society, such customs question the humanity of Islam. Organisations like Muslim Service Society should take the initiative to unify prayer times.” He suggested, “Only the mosque with the maximum members in a region should be allowed to use loudspeakers. Or, mosques could perform that job on a rotational basis.”

Last year, the Kerala Sunni Mahallu Federation, which has 8,000-odd mosque committees affiliated to it, had called for restricted use of loudspeakers at mosques.