The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has welcomed the Gujarat High Court’s verdict on the dismissal of PIL seeking a ban on azaan on loudspeakers.
In a statement released on Friday, December 1, vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Malik Mohtashim Khan welcomed the high court’s decision and pointed at the blatant Islamophobia.
“The selective outrage on the Azaan by ignoring and normalizing loud music during bhajan or aarti in temples and other religious processions smacked of religious bias and Islamophobia, which is, unfortunately, becoming endemic in our body politic. India has a glorious history of religious tolerance and communal amity. We appeal to the people of India not to fall prey to those who wish to incite hatred and misuse religion for their political agenda,” the statement said.
The statement further said that the azaan is an act to call Muslims for congregational prayers in mosques.
On November 29, the Gujarat HC described the plea seeking to ban the use of loudspeakers during azaan as “wholly misconceived.”
The plea was filed by a Bajrang Dal leader claiming the azaan created ‘noise pollution’ causing inconvenience to children and elders.
“We fail to understand how the human voice making azaan through loudspeakers in the morning could achieve the decibel (level) to the extent of creating noise pollution, causing health hazards for the public at large,” a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee asked the petitioner.
“In your temple, the morning aarti with drums and music also starts early at 3 am. So it does not cause any kind of noise to anyone? Can you say the noise of ghanta (bell) and ghadiyal (gong) remains in temple premises only, does not percolate outside the temple?” the bench asked.
