Indonesia issues guidelines on call to prayer

JAKARTA: Except for the azan (Islamic prayers), mosques in Indonesia have been asked not to broadcast sounds when most people are likely to be sleeping, resting, and praying.

They have also been asked not to raise sound levels while conducting a prayer.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs has issued a circular on azan or the Islamic call to prayer, with guidelines on when and how it ought to be broadcast by mosques across the country, amid an outcry over the jailing of a woman who had griped about azan volumes to a neighbour.

Titled “The use of loudspeakers in Mosques, Langgar, and Musholla”, the circular released on Friday urges religious institutions to follow the instructions of the director-general of Muslim guidance, Tempo news portal reported on Saturday.

Langgar and Musholla are terms used in Indonesia for Muslim prayer houses.

The woman, named Meliana, complained to her neighbour in 2016 about the volume of azan being broadcast by a mosque near her home in northern Sumatra.

But the neighbour told others about it and soon rumour had it that Meliana was trying to ban azan.

The resulting outrage led to a rampage by Muslims on several Buddhist temples in what is believed to be the worst bout of anti-Chinese violence in the country since 1998.

After Meliana was sentenced on Tuesday, civil society groups and lawyers denounced the verdict as excessive and silly.

The two biggest Muslim organisations in the country, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, also questioned the use of the blasphemy charge against the woman. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network