Deprived of loudspeakers, mosques adopt novel means to continue broadcasting azaan

MUMBAI: After the police, following court directives to enforce noise pollution regulations, removed loudspeakers from all religious structures in the city, Mumbai's mosques are looking for alternatives to overcome the predicament. A couple of them have come up with innovative ideas.

- Faisal Malik

In the course of the drive, the police removed 1,608 loudspeakers from religious structures in Mumbai alone. Of these, 1,149 were in mosques, 48 in temples, 10 in churches, four in gurudwaras and 147 in other religious establishments, as per the information given by the state government in the state legislature. On Friday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared that the city had finally been made loudspeaker-free.

Even as several petitions have been filed in the Bombay high court, claiming that the police action infringes upon the right to religious freedom, mosques in the city have begun looking at technology-based innovative options. While some have begun using a mobile application designed to resolve

the problem, a society in Maharashtra Nagar, Mankhurd, has installed speakers in flats, connecting them directly to the nearby mosques.

“All the speakers are directly connected with our mosques, and as soon as the muezzin starts reciting azaan, the residents get to hear it,” said Razzak Shaikh, who played a vital role in the initiative. “It leaves no ground for others to raise objections to azaan.”