A world without amplifiers / Cairo dilemma over prayer calls

The first centralised 'Adhan' with the help of satellite communication was came into force in Cairo, Egypt by synchronizing more than 4000 mosques in the city of Cairo, followed  by the decision taken by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in September 2004. The context which lead to such a decision and some responses in this regard, can be read here @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4485521.stm Cairo dilemma over prayer calls

By Sylvia Smith Cairo The minarets were designed for natural acoustics Just before dawn, Cairo resident Muhammad Ahmad is jolted out of his peaceful sleep by a thunderous azan, or call to prayer, roaring out from huge speakers attached to a very modest mosque two streets away. A few moments later a second, even louder muezzin's voice joins in - not in time or in tune with the first call to prayer - summoning him to do his duty, this time at the local prayer hall just around the corner. Over the next few minutes, at least half a dozen other voices of varying tunefulness join in - distorting the sound of the azans and making them sound like a military order. Being invited to rise and pray is one thing, but discordant bellowing is quite another. After years of suffering this aural assault, Muhammad finally put pen to paper to make his displeasure felt. He sent his complaint to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which oversees issues of public worship, saying that high noise levels coming from the dozen mosques in his immediate neighbourhood ruined the real religious meaning of the azan. But at least one conservative imam has argued that "technologising" the call to prayer will start the nation down an ungodly path that will one day terminate with people bowing down before TV sets tuned to pictures of Mecca. ....................................... I think the simplest way is to ban all amplifiers and return to the way muezzins called the faithful to prayer in the Prophet's day, using just their natural voices. "Some of the mosques blast not just the roughly dozen sentences of the call itself," he wrote, "but all of the verses and actual prayers intoned by the local imam." When all the local mosques do the same thing competing with one another in volume, what should be an announcement lasting at most two minutes goes on for 45 minutes, keeping the entire neighbourhood in a state of high alert. "I'm not an irreligious man," he explains. "But there were no loudspeakers at the time of the Prophet. Now, rather than being a joy, to listen to the call to prayer is a daily torture to the ears." He speaks almost apologetically and, more significantly, he wrote anonymously to the ministry. But he is not alone. Single call plan Countless fellow Cairenes share his sense of displeasure. Nor have the floods of similar unsigned complaints gone unheard. Cairo, home to 15m people, is one of the world's biggest cities ---------------------------------------------------------- A world without amplifiers And the move does have its supporters. "The call to prayer, when I first heard it as a child, was beautiful to hear. It wafted over the city in soft and sometimes musical tones," wrote activist Nawal El-Saadawi in the al-Ahram Weekly. "Now it has become a cacophony of strident voices, a threatening call shot through with violence." But Mr Zaqzouq has had to concede that the US government has pressured Cairo on various issues of religious reform, arguing for example that textbooks in many of the country's mosque-backed institutions teach anti-Western principles. But the official line remains that there is no nudging from Washington behind this effort. Furthermore, so as to avoid further charges of bias, the centralised radio broadcasts will feature a revolving group of religious leaders, who will offer a range of religious viewpoints. But at least one conservative imam has argued that "technologising" the call to prayer will start the nation down an ungodly path that will one day terminate with people bowing down before TV sets tuned to pictures of Mecca. As Muhammad Ahmad leaves the house in the faint pre-dawn light, he suggests that a return to the days when technology played no part at all in religion would be the best solution. "Every mosque has a different minaret and so it's right that every mosque should have a different voice," he says. "I think the simplest way is to ban all amplifiers and return to the way muezzins called the faithful to prayer in the Prophet's day, using just their natural voices." Last September, the Ministry of Religious Endowments decided to bring Cairo's 4,000-odd mosques and prayer halls into line by broadcasting a live, centralised call to prayer to replace the current ear-splitting cacophony. But since Religious Endowment Minister Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq made the announcement, there has been a huge outcry of public anger at his proposed reforms.