From: ANISUR RAHMAN anisur.rahman1@btinternet.com [mukto-mona] <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, May 3, 2017 7:42 pm
Subject: [mukto-mona] Re: {PFC-Friends}
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Posted by: "mahfuzur@aol.com" <mahfuzur@aol.com>
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Thursday, May 4, 2017
Re: [mukto-mona] Re: {PFC-Friends}
I share Anisur Rahman's sentiments and experience. About the latter, I know a family in Rajabazar which lives in a multi-storied building, one of a large number of high-rises now choking life in an already dense habitation. There, not near the building in question, but right inside it, is a mosque. Yes, mosque and flats exist back to back, side by side, cheek by jowl. And of course the mosque has loudspeakers blaring Azaan five times a day, seven day a week.
More fundamentally, the use of the ubiquitous loudspeaker speaks much of the society itself. As the society gets more 'Islamic' with time, it also moves further away from ideas of pluralism and secularism, which entail tolerance of a multiplicity of points of views and individual likes and dislikes. Those who routinely turn to loudspeakers in the mosques to proclaim the greatness of Allah and call the Faithful to prayer, are totally oblivious of the existence outside the mosque perimeter of those who may not be willing to hear the call, or may even be inconvenienced by it. That kind of consideration for others, in other words a pluralist point of view, is fast eroding in our society as it turn more Islamic.
That Azaan by loudspeaker is not an integral part of Islam should be obvious, as should be its corollary that the use of the monstrosity can easily be dispensed with . But such is the mindless militancy of the growing number of Islamist, that it is hazardous for a pluralist to even point this out. The Sonu Nigam incident is one example of it. Last year an editor of a large newspaper in Dhaka was excoriated for suggesting that use of loudspeakers for Azaan be stopped.
But we must not give up talking about it. And perhaps more voices like Sonu Nigam's will be heard soon --in our own country.
Mahfuzur Rahman
-----Original Message----- --
This ruling should be sent to Bangladesh also. When Prophet Mohammad invented Islam back in the 7th century in the deserts of Arabia, he had to find ways to call devotees to prayers and so Azaan was invented. Azaan used to be given at the ground level or at the roof of a single storey mud house in the desert and there was no electricity or microphone or loud speaker.
Now the mullahs are using 120/130db or even higher output speakers from 4th/5th/6th floors to spread Azaan as far as possible in densely populated areas. In Dhaka there are mosques almost every 200 to 300m in every direction and they all use mega powerful speakers, almost in competition to each other, to sp read Azaan. Not only that, mullahs use these speakers for their endless bull-shit interpretation of Quran.
My brother's house at Rajarbagh in Dhaka is only 30 to 40 meters from a mosque. The mosque is located on the 4th floor of a nearby building and my brother's apartment is on the 5th floor. Azaan is given at 4:30 AM and then the prayer starts from 5 AM and throughout the whole day and right up to 10 PM Azaans, prayers, khotbas etc continue unabated through the speakers. My brother's wife had developed severe hearing problems some 15 to 20 years ago. My brother, who was the senior most Bengali Capt in PIA (from East Pakistan) and who was asked by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to setup a national airlines and he did setup the Bangladesh Niman back in 1972, developed cancer in mid 1980s. He suffered a lot, as in his pain he could not sleep pro perly and in the early morning he was about to fall asleep, he would be woken up by loud blast of Azaan call. He died just a few years after diagnosis. My nephew had a nervous breakdown some 20 years ago from sleep deprivation and now he is totally deranged!
The Pir of that mosque is so powerful that many ministers come to him for his blessings. Nothing can be done to stop such brutality. It is absolutely barbaric. A religion which imposes such cruelty on human beings should not be allowed to function.
- AR
On Wednesday, 3 May 2017, 15:56, Sitangshu Guha <guhasb@gmail.com> wrote: