Chareidi and Arab lawmakers are partners once again, this time to block the Muezzin Bill that seeks to silence the loudspeakers in the nation’s mosques. The bill has already been approved by the Ministerial Law Committee and is scheduled to be voted on for its preliminary Knesset vote.
The Arab lawmakers feel the law is nothing less than a violation of freedom of religion and feel if passed into law, it will lead to a harsh response, possibly even violence. The chareidim fear the bill will be used to silence the Erev Shabbos and Yomtov sirens in its present version and therefore, they are unwilling to back it.
As a result of the chareidi opposition, the bill was not voted upon on Wednesday 15 Cheshvan in Knesset as originally planned.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
There were no sirens in the alte heim, so there’s no need for them now. It’s not like there’s a halacha supporting this.
#1, the גמ׳ in מסכת שבת goes into detail how and when to sound the Erev Shabbos שופרות. But, I still don’t get the logic, if the Stupid Mosques are waking people up at the crack of dawn, it must be stopped. די צרה בשעתה!
The proposal is an attempt to set a precedent to allow for anti-hareidi legislation.
#3 the proposal is to allow the residents near mosques to sleep
A Shabbos siren that sounds twice on Friday evening is not in any way comparable to the muezzin which goes off five times a day, every day, including at 4 am. I lived in Yerushalayim by a mosque and it was horrible. They make them earsplittingly loud on purpose to harass us.
So how are they going to silence that horrible noise 5 TIMES A DAY? The siren is once a week for a minute or two. Not really comparable!
Re comment no. 2, appleface: Is there a special sect of Islam which worships at “Stupid Mosques”? Or are you just trying to insult Muslims? And if so, why? Are there any “Stupid Shuls”?
huju, is everything OK?! I mean if your Jewish, do you believe in your Religion? Don’t you realize that the more “Jewish” somebody is, the more selfless and Holy they become. To the contrary with Islam the ONLY Peaceful Muslims are the ones that are partly secular, but the more they become religiously inspired, they turn into Ruthless Barbarians!!!