DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Egypt has approved a controversial plan to broadcast a single call to prayer five times a day, instead of leaving the timing to thousands of individual mosques, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.
The much-debated unified adhan – call to prayer – will apply in Greater Cairo starting next month, the paper quoted Egypt's Minister of Religious Endowments, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, as saying.
The two-year-old plan of the Awqaf ministry, which oversees Egypt's religious affairs, is meant to quiet the cacophony of 4,500 government mosques announcing the call to prayer over loudspeakers at a slightly different time.
A selection process will take place, and the imam with the best voice will be chosen to do the job live from Greater Cairo Radio. The adhan would then be broadcast live though special receivers installed in each mosque.
But the Religious, Social, and Endowments Affairs Committee of the People's Assembly (Egypt's lower house of parliament) opposed the plan, saying it was against Islamic tradition and decreased their spirituality.
The Committee recommended using the cost of the project to support the poor and homeless, establish a religious TV channel, or treat ailing preachers.
The project has so far cost 680,000 Egyptian pounds (119,000 dollars, 91,000 euros).
But Zaqzouq defended the plan, saying it had received the support of Grand Mufti Dr. Ali Gomaa.
Mosques in Cairo, which number almost 45,000, are packed close together, and not every moazen (adhan reciter) starts at the same time. The result is an overlapping cacophany that lasts 10-15 minutes five times a day.
The scheme only applies to government-owned mosques in the Greater Cairo area, leaving some 2,500 freelance muezzins to challenge the "one voice for the whole city" scheme.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
