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Sitting in an workplace lined with books overlooking a large prayer corridor, Mohammed Ashfaq Kazi, the primary preacher on the largest mosque in Mumbai, checked a decibel meter connected to the loudspeakers earlier than he gave the decision to worship.
“The amount of our azaan (name to prayer) has grow to be a political challenge, however I do not need it to take a communal flip,” stated Kazi, one of the vital influential Islamic students within the sprawling metropolis on India’s western coast.
As he spoke he pointed to loudspeakers connected to the minarets of the ornate, sand-coloured Juma Masjid in Mumbai’s outdated buying and selling quarters.
Kazi and three different senior clerics from Maharashtra the place Mumbai is positioned stated greater than 900 mosques within the west of the state had agreed to show the quantity down on calls to prayer following complaints from an area Hindu politician.
Raj Thackeray, chief of a regional Hindu celebration, demanded in April that mosques and others locations of worship stored inside allowed noise limits. If they didn’t, he stated his followers would chant Hindu prayers outdoors mosques in protest.
Thackeray, whose celebration has only one seat within the state’s 288-member meeting, stated he was merely insisting that court docket rulings on noise ranges be enforced.
“If faith is a personal matter then why are Muslims allowed to make use of loudspeakers all three hundred and sixty five days (of the yr)?” Thackeray instructed reporters in Mumbai, India’s monetary hub and capital of Maharashtra.
“My pricey Hindu brothers, sisters and moms come collectively; be one in bringing down these loudspeakers,” he stated.
Leaders of India’s 200 million Muslims see the transfer, which coincided with the holy pageant of Eid, as one other try by hardline Hindus to undermine their rights to free worship and spiritual expression, with the tacit settlement of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP).
In current weeks, a senior BJP chief started pushing for swapping marriage and inheritance legal guidelines primarily based on faith with a uniform civil code, taking purpose at guidelines that enable Muslim males, for instance, to have 4 wives.
The BJP didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Thackeray’s initiative. It denies concentrating on minorities, and says it desires progressive change that advantages all Indians.
On the Juma Masjid, Kazi stated he complied with Thackeray’s calls for as a way to scale back the chance of violence between Muslims and Hindus.
Bloody clashes have erupted sporadically throughout India since independence, most lately in 2020 when dozens of individuals, largely Muslims, had been killed in Delhi following protests towards a citizenship legislation that Muslims stated discriminated towards them.
Whereas hardline Hindu leaders had been in search of to undermine Islam, Kazi stated, “we (Muslims) have to take care of calm and serenity.”
The state took Thackeray’s initiative significantly.
Senior police officers met spiritual leaders together with Kazi earlier this month to make sure microphones had been turned down, as they feared clashes in Maharashtra, dwelling to greater than 10 million Muslims and 70 million Hindus.
On Saturday, police filed a prison case towards two males in Mumbai for utilizing loudspeakers to recite the early morning azaan and warned staff of Thackeray’s celebration from gathering round mosques.
“Not at all will we enable anybody to create communal stress within the state and the court docket’s order have to be revered,” stated V.N. Patil, a senior Mumbai police official.
A senior official for Thackeray’s celebration stated the initiative was not designed to single out Muslims however aimed to cut back “noise air pollution” created by all locations of worship.
“Our celebration doesn’t appease the minority neighborhood,” stated Kirtikumar Shinde, including that police had issued warnings to twenty,000 celebration staff this month.
The problem of calls to prayer extends past Maharashtra. BJP politicians in three states requested native police to take away or restrict the usage of loudspeakers in locations of worship.
The deputy chief minister of nation’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, stated over 60,000 unauthorised loudspeakers had been faraway from mosques and temples.
Supply: Reuters
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