Arab MK slams bill to muffle Muslim call to prayer

An Arab lawmaker has vowed to go to court over a bill proposed by rightwing lawmakers that would ban mosques from using loudspeakers for the traditional call to prayer broadcast in the early morning hours.

MK Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Joint List said if a new version of the bill makes an exception for the Sabbath siren that warns of the coming Sabbath on Friday afternoons in many religiously observant communities throughout the country, he would appeal the law to the High Court of Justice.

The proposal, backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but originally proposed by Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, is a “source of agitation among Israeli Arabs,” Tibi warned. It was also angering Muslim leaders around the world, he added.

The legislation comes in response to complaints by residents of some Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem that border on Arab neighborhoods and villages, who say the earliest of the day’s five prayer calls, which takes place before sunrise and can wake up sleepers in nearby neighborhoods as early as 4 a.m. during the summer, are louder than is permitted under current noise pollution laws.

But Muslim leaders have called the proposal an attack on Muslim ritual. In Israeli Arab communities, some protested on Friday against the bill. Critics have said any problems could be resolved with existing legislation which ban noise disturbances between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., though these rules are poorly enforced.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism party demanded that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which gave its stamp of approval for the bill last week, reconsider the measure, noting that in its current form it could also silence the siren used to announce the onset of Shabbat on Fridays.

The new version, slated to face its first vote in the Knesset as early as Wednesday, forbids loudspeakers for all “houses of worship during the night.”