Malaysian Mufti Defends Mosque Amplifier Ban
What Islam tells us to amplify is only the azan. Even if other than that, it is not meant to go as far as disturbing public peace,” Perlis Mufti Datuk Asri Zainul Abidin wrote on Facebook, the Malays Mail reported.
“In fact it was even prohibited by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In Islam, preserving the peaceful lives of others is pivotal with the exception of anything that is permitted by the syarak (Islamic laws)."
Mufti Abdin was defending a fatwa against using amplifiers that was issued earlier this month by Penang State.
According to the Mufti, using loudspeakers to amplify Quran recitals and Dhikr (remembrance of Allah) disturbs the peace while practicing the faith.
"Maybe there are those who want to recite them later, or at another time. Maybe there are children who are sleeping or there are those ill," he said.
The Mufti of Perlis, in the northern part of the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, warned that using amplifiers in Dhikr could distort the image of Islam as an “insensitive” religion.
"It can create a bad impression of Islam, which is actually harmonious. This is because other programs tend to be long when the azan is actually only five minutes long," Mufti Abidin said.
Malaysia has a population of nearly 26 millions, with Malays, mostly Muslims, making up nearly 60%.
Ethnic Chinese and Indians - most of them Buddhists, Hindus and Christians - make up about 35 percent.
