Source: TOI
JERUSALEM: In a controversial move, Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his support for a proposed law that would ban mosques from using loudspeakers to call people to pray, stressing that “there is no need to be more liberal than Europe”.
The law popularly known as the Muezzin Law, proposed by lawmaker Anastassia Michaeli of ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party applies to all houses of worship, but the practice is mainly prevalent in mosques.
“There’s no need to be more liberal than Europe,” Netanyahu was quoted by Ha’aretz as telling ministers of the ruling Likud party during a discussion on the proposed law.
Categories: Asia, Israel, Law and Religion, Middle East
There is a big difference between Europe and Palestine / Israel relating to the topic of Azan (call to prayer). In Europe the mosques did not stress the need for a loud call to prayers because Muslims mostly do in fact not live around the mosques, but sometimes considerable distances from them. In Palestine / Israel the case is different. The Muslim houses usually surround the mosque. More over the Muslims lived there before the Jews arrived from Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia (etc.).