Israel Matzav

Will mosques be forced into silence at odd hours

Five times a day, mosques across Israel summon the faithful to prayer. My own home is probably 300-500 meters from a mosque, and while we definitely do not notice its chants during the day, we definitely do notice them - especially if we are up already - about an hour and a half before sunrise, which depending on the time of year could be just about anywhere between 4:00 and 5:00 am.

So that you all understand what we're talking about, I want to give you some idea of what it sounds like. As you listen to this video, keep in mind that it was filmed in the daytime, when there is a lot less echo from the surroundings than they there is at night.

Let's go to the videotape.



Pretty loud, isn't it? To be fair, if you live near it, you get somewhat used to it, and if you're really tired, you can sleep through it. But it can disturb people.

A bill being introduced in the Knesset would restrict the times of day at which the muzzein can be played (the muzzein is generally a recording of someone chanting). And you can guess who is upset about it.

According to the Knesset report, there are some 400 mosques in Israel, half of which are manned by state-employed clerics, and whose public address systems are under state regulation. The rest are not under government supervision.

Moreover, the study surveyed other countries' policies on the issue, and found that the Muezzin calls in Egypt are synchronized, and their volume is monitored. In Saudi Arabia, public address system use has been restricted as well. In Austria, the Muezzin sounds his voice only Vienna's Islamic Center, and only on Fridays.

Officials in the Arab sector lamented that the initiative is a direct affront to Islam.

"Those who come live in Jaffa are aware of the mosques and churches here," Sheikh Saliman Setel said. He noted that a few minutes of the Muezzin call does not compare to the noise that comes from traffic, police cars and ambulances.

Tel Aviv Councilman Ahmad Mashharawi equated the bill to a rash of legislation that has been promoted by the Right-wing Knesset members in recent weeks, and accused the lawmakers of being so "drunk on power they are willing to compromise the foundations on which the state was based."

"Islam was here before Anastassia Michaeli came to this country, and it will stay long after she's gone," he said.

Michaeli's ancestors were in this country long before there were Muslims, and her descendants will God willing be here long after there are Muslims. But that's not why I showed you this. I showed you this to point out the double standard.

Moreover, the study surveyed other countries' policies on the issue, and found that the Muezzin calls in Egypt are synchronized, and their volume is monitored. In Saudi Arabia, public address system use has been restricted as well. In Austria, the Muezzin sounds his voice only Vienna's Islamic Center, and only on Fridays.

And the Arabs will never agree to measures like that in Israel.

This reminds me of the argument over the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance being built on an abandoned cemetery.

In fact, the entire area of the Mamilla Cemetery had long been regarded by Muslim religious leaders as mundras -- abandoned. A cemetery not in use for 37 years is considered mundras and without sanctity. That explains why in 1946 the most prominent Islamic religious figure of the day, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, presented plans to build a Muslim university on a large portion of the Mamilla Cemetery itself (a rendering of which we presented to the court). Today, the concept of mundras is widely accepted and practiced in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories and throughout the Arab world.

Though Judaism does not have a mundras concept, the Supreme Court noted in its decision that "despite the Jewish religious law prohibitions . . . to prevent the removal of graves or building on top of them, in practice, in cases where public needs required this, an agreed Jewish law solution has usually been found, and this allowed the building to be carried out in a way that minimized . . . the violation of the graves. . . . Jewish religious law also allows, as we have said, the removal of graves in a dignified manner. Balanced solutions of this kind were also proposed by the respondents [Simon Wiesenthal Center], and they even agreed to pay all the expenses involved in them."

I can't find a link right now, but during the course of the argument over the Mamilla cemetery, it came out that Muslim graves are moved to make way for public works projects everywhere in the Muslim world. But not in Israel. And the same will be true of any attempt to restrict the noise level coming from the muzzeins.

Labels: Arab anti-Semitism, Islam, mosque

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:41 AM