After singer Sonu Nigam tweeted in April expressing his displeasure on being woken up early by loudspeakers blaring the azaan from a mosque, Maulana Ajmal Khan, the Imam of Chandigarh's Jama Masjid, said that the loudspeakers should not disturb the non-Muslims.
On the third Friday of Ramzan, when Muslims from across the city had gathered for their afternoon prayers, Khan said, "We should not bother our neighbours unnecessarily. The volume of our loudspeakers should be brought down to a level that it does not disturb them. I believe that disturbing the neighbours is a nuisance, which is forbidden in Islam."
He added, "We make announcements at Sehri (before sunrise) at about 3:40am when the other residents are sleeping. We should avoid doing this. It is a sensitive issue and anybody is free to take action against us. One can move court as well."
Khan gave an example of one of the mosques in Kerala where the authorities have decided to recite azaan once in five times.
"They have decided that only a single azaan will be delivered from the Masjid and others in the area will repeat it without any noise," Khan added.
In a recent observation made by the Punjab and Haryana high courts, it was stated that azaan is undoubtedly an integral part of Islam, it does not necessarily have to be blared through loudspeakers.
The court had made this observation in connection with a plea filed against Nigam who had tweeted, "I am not a Muslim, and I have to be woken up by the azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India."
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