CAIRO: The Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq announced at a press conference on Sunday that the government, with the support of the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, has approved a project to synchronize the call to prayer in Cairo. The minister also said that the government might next ban the use of amplifiers by muezzins at small mosques outside government control. Zaqzouq announced that the government had selected 25 muezzins who will make the call to prayer by broadcasts from a central location. The 25 selected muezzins will take the place of the 748 who have made their living by calling the city to prayer every sunrise from the minarets of thousands of mosques. According to Zaqzouq, broadcasting the call to prayer using a single muezzin, located at the Azhar mosque, and then transmitting his call through receivers to mosques throughout the city will end the noise pollution that stems from the current situation in which different mosques make the call to prayer at slightly different times, with the call to prayer starting in one mosque after it has been completed in another mosque. Due to the use of loudspeakers, this situation has gotten worse over time, especially for city inhabitants whose dwellings happens to be situated in close proximity to more than one mosque. The calls to prayer blare from loudspeakers, starting a few minutes after one another, causing the call to prayer to be stretched out over a period of 10 to 15 minutes, five times a day. A contract has already been signed by the government to purchase 4,000 radio receivers for the project. While this will only be enough for nearly half of all the mosques located in Egypt, it will serve to cover the mosques in chief locations throughout greater Cairo. As for the city s zawyas, small privately run mosques, some of which have muezzins and loudspeakers, Zaqzouq said that the ministry is looking for a solution to prevent the muezzins' call to prayer in such mosques from affecting the sound of the standardized call to prayer. Zaqzouq dismissed opposition based on fears that his ministry will try to standardize the Friday sermon or abolish the pre-dawn call to prayer. He affirmed that sermons in different parts of the city should differ based on the congregation. Sermons in wealthier neighborhoods differ widely from those in poor neighborhoods. This project, which will start operating later this year, is not an entirely novel idea. In 2004, Zaqzouq put the idea forth only to have it shot down by imams, citizens and a host of people who believed the project went against the country's religious traditions and culture. One important remaining concern is that of the fate of existing muezzins, who survive by making the call to prayer five times a day. There are approximately 45,000 muezzins in the country, according to a Reuters report; that's 45,000 jobs that the ministry will have to recover. "The government says that they will find jobs for the muezzins, but 45,000 jobs? says an imam for one of the smaller mosques in Mohandiseen. "It doesn't make sense to me, I don't see this as a well thought out plan. However, the ministry does not seem fazed by this. According to the minister, the existing muezzins will be trained to become imams of mosques - a job, he says, that is still in demand. Egypt is not the first country to initiate a synchronized call to prayer. The United Arab Emirates, specifically Abu Dhabi, has also implemented the project, and while it has succeeded in diminishing noise pollution, not everyone is satisfied with it. "My sister lives in Abu Dhabi, where the call to prayer is synchronized, says Naila Ahmed. "It really sounds like an automated machine, it grates the ear. What happened to our tradition, to waking up early in the morning to the nice voice of a muezzin down the road? It seems that, while some are happy to see a semblance of consistency when it comes to the call to prayer, many others see it as a cold reminder that time-honored traditions are slipping away.
