Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdi Zaqzouq announced on Sunday that a "unified system for calls to prayer" would be instituted in the Governorate of Cairo beginning in the Islamic month of Ramadan, which will begin in August. "We have finished testing the new system, which will be adopted in all of Cairo's 4,000 mosques… in order to put an end to the war of the microphones and the current chaos," Zaqzouq declared at an event organized by his ministry to recognize exemplary imams. He added that the Governorate of Alexandria would implement the system shortly afterwards. The minister also announced that the government would begin disbursing recently approved salary increases for imams later this month. "You no longer have any excuse not to perform your duties for the nation," he told the imams in attendance, "especially after the LE250 salary raise President Mubarak has approved for every imam." Zaqzouq went on to say that he hoped that the raises, which will cost the government some LE150 million, would allow imams to fully devote themselves to Islamic outreach. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
