Mosques in Mumbai decided to turn the Azaan’s volume low following Hindu leader Raj Thackeray’s threats.
The leader of a Hindu political party, Raj Thackeray had demanded that mosques should be within the permitted noise limits. He also threatened that his Hindu followers would protest outside the mosques if mosques didn’t agree to his demands.
The Hindu leader said that why Muslims are allowed to use loudspeakers for Azaan for the whole year if the religion is considered a private matter. “My dear Hindu brothers, sisters and mothers come together, be one in bringing down these loudspeakers,” he said.
Muslim Scholar Muhammad Ashfaq Kazi, the main preacher of the largest Mosque in Mumbai, said that the sound of our Azaan has become a political issue and I don’t want it to be a reason of communal riots.
Senior clerics in Mumbai said that more than 900 mosques in the west of Maharashtra state had decided to to turn down the volume of the loudspeakers due to the complaints and threats by a Hindu politician.
Mumbai Police has also registered criminal cases against two mosques for reciting the early morning (Fajr) Azaan.