Mumbai mosques lower call to prayer volume after Hindu complaints

Sitting in an office overlooking a giant prayer hall, Mohammed Ashfaq Kazi, the main preacher at the largest mosque in Mumbai, checked a decibel meter attached to the loudspeakers before he gave the call to prayer.

“The volume of our adhan has become a political issue, but I don’t want it to take a communal turn,” said Mr Kazi, one of the most influential Islamic scholars in the metropolis on India’s west coast.

As he spoke, he pointed to loudspeakers attached to the minarets of the ornate, sand-coloured Juma Masjid in Mumbai’s old trading quarters.

Mr Kazi and three other senior clerics from Maharashtra state said more than 900 mosques had agreed to turn the volume down on calls to prayer.

This followed complaints from a local Hindu politician.

Raj Thackeray, leader of a regional Hindu party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, demanded last month that mosques and others places of worship keep within permitted noise limits. If they did not, he said, his followers would chant Hindu prayers outside mosques in protest.

Mr Thackeray, whose party has only one seat in the state’s 288-member assembly, said he was merely insisting court rulings on noise levels be enforced.

“If religion is a private matter, then why are Muslims allowed to use loudspeakers all 365 days?” Mr Thackeray said.

“My dear Hindu brothers, sisters and mothers, come together. Be one in bringing down these loudspeakers.”

Leaders of India’s 200 million Muslims see the move – which coincided with Eid Al Fitr – as another attempt by hardline Hindus to undermine their rights to religious expression. They believe the move has the tacit agreement of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP denies minorities are targets and said it wants progressive change that benefits all Indians.

At the Juma Masjid, Mr Kazi said he has complied with Mr Thackeray’s demands to reduce the risk of violence between Muslims and Hindus.

Clashes have erupted sporadically across India since independence in 1947. In 2020, dozens of people – mostly Muslims – were killed in Delhi following protests against a citizenship law that Muslims said discriminated against them.

“We have to maintain calm and serenity,” Mr Kazi said.

Police officials met religious leaders, including Mr Kazi, this month to ensure speakers were turned down. They feared clashes in Maharashtra, home to about 90 million Hindus.

On Saturday, police filed a criminal case against two men in Mumbai for using loudspeakers to recite the early morning call to prayer and warned workers of Mr Thackeray’s party against gathering around mosques.

“Under no circumstances will we allow anyone to create communal tension in the state and the court’s order must be respected,” said VN Patil, a senior police official in Mumbai.