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Indonesia bids to muffle noisy mosques | Indonesia bids to muffle noisy mosques |
(34 minutes later) | |
Indonesia has set up a new team to reduce noise from mosques, an official said on Thursday, as places of worship go into overdrive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. | Indonesia has set up a new team to reduce noise from mosques, an official said on Thursday, as places of worship go into overdrive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. |
There are about 800,000 mosques in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but residents living nearby have long complained that their speakers are too loud. | |
Places of worship become particularly active during Ramadan, which this year runs from mid-June to mid-July, when mosques blare out religious sermons even earlier than usual. | |
In an attempt to tackle the issue, Indonesia’s vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, who also heads of an umbrella group for many of its mosques, has formed a team to sample the noise from mosque loudspeakers across the country, his spokesman Husain Abdullah said. | |
“The idea is for mosques to turn down the volume a little so that the sound can be heard only by residents in the immediate area,” he said, adding that the aim was to have a “more harmonious, melodious sound coming from mosques”. | “The idea is for mosques to turn down the volume a little so that the sound can be heard only by residents in the immediate area,” he said, adding that the aim was to have a “more harmonious, melodious sound coming from mosques”. |
He also said that mosques should ensure that the sounds they produced did not clash with other local noise. There was often a “loudspeaker war” between places of worship in the same area trying to outdo each other, he said. | He also said that mosques should ensure that the sounds they produced did not clash with other local noise. There was often a “loudspeaker war” between places of worship in the same area trying to outdo each other, he said. |
The group, set up earlier this month, has already collected many samples and will send a report to the vice-president, who plans to sit down with Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body and Islamic organisations and discuss how to tackle the issue. | The group, set up earlier this month, has already collected many samples and will send a report to the vice-president, who plans to sit down with Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body and Islamic organisations and discuss how to tackle the issue. |
The group will complement a previous initiative, which saw about 100 teams of technicians deployed across the country to help fine-tune mosque loudspeakers and give advice on how best to arrange them to reduce noise. | The group will complement a previous initiative, which saw about 100 teams of technicians deployed across the country to help fine-tune mosque loudspeakers and give advice on how best to arrange them to reduce noise. |
Abdullah acknowledged that regulating the country’s noisy mosques would be difficult and called on the Indonesian Council of Ulema to issue a fatwa on the issue. | Abdullah acknowledged that regulating the country’s noisy mosques would be difficult and called on the Indonesian Council of Ulema to issue a fatwa on the issue. |
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