Adhan noise nuisance revisited

Yesterday afternoon someone for whom I have no small measure of respect (and which is unlikely to be significantly diminished at any time) confronted me on several points of view raised in this blog entry which was in response to this news article.

The brother, a devout Muslim, thought I was being unfair and wrong in singling out the Muslim community. He was particularly perturbed, perhaps even angered, by the following assertion.

“What is absurd about these amplified calls to prayers is that the persons they are purporting to call to prayer are almost always already congregated in the masjid and therefore they achieve nothing more than shouting at themselves and causing mass discomfort to residents nearby.”

He argued that, to the Muslim community in the vicinity of his masjid, the adhan (aka call to prayer) served a useful purpose and it was only for – at the most – two minutes in duration. When the adhan is sounded, he claimed, several members of the jama’at (Muslim community) are alerted that prayers would be held in a short while and they leave their homes and rush to the masjid to partake.

For me to proclaim that “they achieve nothing more than shouting at themselves”, he argued, was false.

On numerous occasions I have been in close proximity to the masjid in question at prayer time and I have seen several persons making their way to the masjid upon hearing the call to prayer.

This argument though is weak.

I was a Muslim from the time of my awareness up until I was about 18 or 19, perhaps a few years older, with age the memory has become fuzzy. For several years during that time though I was – not unlike the brother aforementioned – a most devout Muslim who prayed five times per day and observed, in a very stringent fashion, the principles of Islam.

The masjid I attended did not sound amplified adhans. The adhans were sounded by the natural sound of a male human being. This same masjid (now renovated and in a new location) sounds the adhan in an amplified manner even with close neighbours who are non-Muslims.

A digression is needed for me to clarify that I have no objection to the adhan being called by a human being’s natural voice. My objection is to the noise nuisance created by the amplified adhans. Also the brother seemed unaware that I had written several pieces previously which dealt with the noise nuisance from churches and temples, wedding houses, shows, barbecues, mini buses and other vehicles etc.

Nevertheless, for all those years when I attended the masjid – which the brother in question also attended – very rarely did the adhan actually call people to prayer. Almost always everyone was already congregated at the masjid.

Further, congregational prayers in Islam are not arbitrary. The times are set and they are known to all. At most they shift by a few minutes depending on the time of year (based on sunrise and sunset mainly).

If therefore, prayers to Muslims are so important (they are in fact compulsory) that they must be done five times a day and the times are fixed and known why are the Muslims in the community so lax, so irresponsible that they need to be called to pray? Why are they not like the brothers (no sisters prayed at the masjid in those days but they do now) of the days when I attended the masjid and everyone was congregated at the times of prayer?

I should point out too that several of the disciplined brothers who prayed then are the same ones who have now become negligent and are lingering at home when they know they should be making their way to the masjid for prayers. At the last minute, when the adhan is sounded they can be seen scrambling to the masjid.

My question is this: why must an entire neighbourhood be made to suffer by way of the amplified adhans because of a few errant individuals? Why must literally thousands of residents, all across Guyana have to contend with the discomfort of having someone on a loud speaker bellow into their ears, disrupting their lives five times per day just to call less than a handful of people to prayer? Again I must reiterate that prayers in Islam are not arbitrary, the times and fixed.

Another argument the brother raised is that if a majority of the residents close to the masjid where he is a senior executive were to petition him he would lower the volume of the amplification. He would not turn it off, but rather lower the volume to a mutually acceptable level.

He contends that the neighbours are not affected adversely as if they were they would have complained and action would have been taken.

The brother is an influential resident of the area. I know for a fact that he is revered and feared by residents. The vast majority of them will refuse and have refused to complain to him or to do so openly for fear of retribution, real, perceived or imagined.

They bear up with the shrill of the adhan to maintain a good neighbourly front.

I would like to challenge the brother to this though: let there be a silent vote in the community with one option being to continue with the amplified adhan as is and the other option being to cease the amplification of the adhan and have it continue by a natural human voice only.

I am convinced that there will be a landslide victory to cease the amplified adhans once residents are convinced that action will be taken as per their vote. I am also convinced that this challenge will never be accepted as the jama’at is aware of the true sentiments of their non-Muslim neighbours inasmuch as they parade that there are few complaints.

The difficulty faced by the Muslim community in Guyana is that they behave and act as if they live in an exclusively Islamic state when they live and exist in a secular state. They impose their actions upon others thereby breaching the constitutional rights of their neighbours and friends. In a civilized multi-religious/secular society Muslims and indeed Christians and Hindus could not dream of doing what they get away with in Guyana. The Muslims of Guyana though believe that because their adhans are only two minutes long and because there are others who create noise nuisances of longer durations that that gives them the right to continue their actions. Two wrongs… ah nevermind.

Finally I have zeroed in on the issue of noise nuisance created by the adhans because of three primary reasons:

i) When the issue of noise nuisance is discussed, the Muslim community, for some strange reason is given a free pass despite the five-times-per-day adhans all across the land

ii) Disrupting the lives of people within an entire community for two minutes, five times per day is unreasonable, infringes on their constitutional rights for peaceful existence and is bullyism

iii) For reasons not entirely known to me persons who suffer from the noise nuisance created by adhans do so in silence and feel they have no recourse to meaningful action in getting the noise nuisance to cease. These people are not only non-Muslim but also some Muslims as well

I object to and vehemently despise all forms of noise nuisance. I will campaign – as indeed I have – against it in whatever form it presents itself.

I have some simple solutions.

a) Adhans must not be amplified at any time under any circumstances

b) All churches and temples within a residential area or within close proximity of a residential area which engage in noise making activities must be made sound proof

c) Amplified stereo systems in vehicles be banned. Any vehicle found with an amplified stereo system should have all audio equipment seized and the vehicle should be impounded for 30 days

d) Weddings and other religious ceremonies can be held on residential premises without amplified noises. All receptions etc must be held at venues pre-approved for such purposes

e) All schools located within residential areas should be relocated

f) A complete review of the zoning laws and strict enforcement of same