Israel Matzav

We should do this in our neighborhood

Like every town and neighborhood that borders a Muslim area, our neighborhood (which shall remain nameless) is disturbed each morning about an hour and a half before sunrise (around 4:15 am these days) with the loud call of the minaret. Worse, here in Jerusalem, most mosques that are near concentrations of Jews have pointed the minaret toward the Jews - resulting in disturbed sleep patterns. (I have a theory that one of the reasons strict Muslims are violent all over the world is because having to be at prayer five times per day from very early in the morning to late at night causes them to be sleep-deprived and therefore unable to control their tempers as well as might be the case otherwise).

In Jerusalem's Armon HaNetziv neighborhood - on the southern end of the city - they had a great idea to give their Arab neighbors a taste of their own  medicine.

Let's go to the videotape.


The Jewish residents of Armon HeNetziv aren't just doing this to give the 'Palestinians' a taste of their own medicine. There's another goal.

Jews all over Israel find themselves routinely harassed by noise pollution from Muslim neighborhoods in recent years. This less-known “intifada” by Arabs involves fitting loudspeakers on minarets in mosques – which for centuries made do with unamplified muezzin calls for prayer.

The Jerusalem Municipality reportedly embarked on a process to investigate and limit the noise pollution by local mosques, in January. According to the move, initiated by nationalist Councilman Aryeh King, the prayer call of 200 mosques in the eastern part of Jerusalem will be measured to see if the decibel level violates the law.

King made the fight against Muslim noise pollution a priority when he was elected last November. At the time he stated "just like it's forbidden for us (Jews) to make loud noises after 12 at night it will be forbidden for them."

200,000 shekels have reportedly been allocated for the pilot program, in which the volume of the prayer calls emanating from two mosques in the south of the city will be measured. Mosques that disturb the public peace with their amplified prayer call will be put on a "black list" by the city.

Mosques on the list will be ordered to turn their loudspeakers to face the center of the Arab neighborhoods and villages, to try and prevent disturbances to the rest of the city. If that step isn't enough, a technological solution will be installed to screen and reduce the noise dramatically.

Heh.

Labels: Jerusalem, mosque, Shma Yisrael

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:11 PM