Jawi denies involvement in ‘azan dispute’

Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali said today that no directive was issued for a mosque here to lower the volume of its loudspeakers after Muslims protested this afternoon over a purported complaint by an MCA member about noise levels of the azan.

“I do not know about the directive to lower the volume when reciting the azan,” Che Mat told The Malaysian Insider today.

“We also did not issue the directive.”

Earlier today, about 100 protesters gathered outside the Al-Ikhlasiah Mosque in Pantai Dalam here to urge the government to arrest a lawyer under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly pressuring the mosque to lower the volume of its loudspeakers.

The demonstrators also held posters naming the lawyer and displaying what they claimed was his home address in Pantai Hill Park condominium.

The group, from Muslim welfare organisation Pekida, also distributed copies of a fax, purportedly from the man and said to have been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, asking for the volume of the mosque’s loudspeakers to be lowered.

In the letter dated December 20, 2010, the man said that he has been a member of MCA since 1998.

He said he has been living in Pantai Hill Park for five years and was roused in the mornings by the mosque’s call for prayers.

The Muslim call for prayer’s five recitals daily first became a political issue in 2008 when Selangor executive councillor Teresa Kok was arrested under the ISA for allegedly asking a Puchong mosque to stop playing the azan over its loudspeakers.

Kok, who was released a week after her arrest, denied the allegation while the mosque’s committee members also came forward to defend the Selangor DAP chairman.



comments

So is this another sandiwara to raise religious and racial tension?

Mosque said it was a directive from JAWI but JAWI now denied it. Who is behind this sandiwara?

By the way, aren't effigies 'haram' in Islam?
What more for Muslims to bring effigies into mosque compound.

Shame on these UMNO-sponsored so-called Muslims!!