Muslims in Blackburn are banned from broadcasting calls for prayers

CAIRO , August 24 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslims in Britain were banned from broadcasting calls for prayers through the mosques' loudspeaker, a leading British newspaper reported Tuesday, August 24.

The Blackburn Council had rejected a request of the Nur Al-Islam mosque to broadcast the calls for prayers through the mosque's loudspeakers, saying the decision was to protect the feelings of followers of other faiths, said the Guardian.

"We have to consider there are some people in that area who are not of the Muslim faith," said Fred Slater, a councilor at the council, Fred Slater.

The council's decision came after a congregation of the mosque's visitors had submitted a petition with 182 signatures to allow the mosque summon Muslims for prayers through loudspeakers, saying  the calls would only be heard in Audley Range, where most residents are Asian.

Members of the Nur Al-Islam mosque, for their part, expressed dissatisfaction over the council's decision, wondering how could the ice cream vans play their tunes on the streets of Blackburn while calls for summoning Muslims to attend the prayers are banned.

"That probably would not be right in an area where most people are not Muslims. But 90% of people in the Audley and Queen's Park areas are from the Asian community," Salim Mulla, the councilor for the ward containing the mosque said.

"There are a couple of mosques in Blackburn which have permission to broadcast the adhaan (prayer call) five times a day," he added.

He said the calls for prayers only last for two minutes and the mosque wanted to publicly broadcast for the prayers only two or three times a day.

Mulla said the mosque had used to broadcast the prayers calls regularly for more than 10 years. "But there were one or two complaints and they discovered they did not have permission."

Click to read the article of the Guardian in full

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