Arab MKs decry mosque muffling bill as racist

Joint (Arab) List chairman Ayman Odeh says the legislation that will silence houses of worship in the nighttime hours is a “persecution of the Arab public, against the presence of Arabs [in Israel], against the Arabic language and against our existence in the region.”

“The sound of the muezzin came before the racists and will still exist after the racists,” Odeh says during a stormy Knesset debate ahead of the vote.

MK Jamal Zahalka, also of the Joint List, decries the bill as “a declaration of war on Islam.”

“This is a racist law whose only purpose is to hurt our public,” he says, adding that “what disturbs the supporters of this legislation is not the noise, but rather that the sound of the muezzin reminds them of the true identity of this land.”