Ahead of Sunday’s vote in the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on a proposed bill to prohibit the use of loudspeakers in houses of prayer, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) sent the committee a “sharply worded letter” against the idea. The statement, written by IDI Vice President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and IDI researcher Dr. Amir Fuchs, says the bill is not necessary because the current law already opposes causing unreasonable noise. The writers add there is no doubt that the bill is intended to harm mosques (and not houses of prayer in general, as it is presented by its sponsors), because mosques are the only houses of prayer that use loudspeakers.
They’re right about that one. While Jewish houses of worship are largely a place for whispering and mumbling, with the occasional cantorial singing, and churches limit their noisemaking to bell ringing, mosques deliver a very loud and jarring message of faith using loudspeakers, whether their nearby neighbors are Arabs, Jews, or Christians, everyone gets to share the joy.
A one time attempt on the part of some Jerusalem Jews to return in kind and use loudspeakers to deliver the Sh’ma Israel lasted a few weeks and died out. We just don’t have what it takes to ruin your neighbor’s peace five times a day, seven days a week.
Back in 2014, Israel beiteinu MK Robert Iltov submitted a bill calling to limit the calls of the muezzin in order to prevent noise pollution.
MK Iltov said at the time that hundreds of thousands of Israelis, in the Galilee, the Negev, Jerusalem and Jaffa, to name but a few areas, suffer this daily, grating noise, using a loudspeaker system from early dawn till night. He suggested that no houses of worship would be allowed to use exterior loudspeaker systems to call on the faithful or to deliver religious or national messages.
“Freedom of religion should not become a factor in harming the quality of life,” he stated.
Now the law is up for a vote again, which is something the IDI — whose members most likely do not reside near one of those sound blasters, are up in arms about it. Kremnitzer and Fuchs insist the bill is intended to harm use of the loudspeakers for nationalist reasons that have nothing to do with noise: “The bill is intended not to deal with harm, but rather to harm freedom of religion. If the bill is advanced, it will encourage rifts in the Israeli community and harm the Muslim public. The government must maintain the norms of equality and defend freedom of religion by preventing this bill from entering the laws of Israel.”
The only solution in this case would probably be to encourage a group of Muslims to open up a mosque near 4 Pinsker Street, where the IDI offices reside, in one of western Jerusalem’s more affluent neighborhoods, and start pumping Allah’s message. It’s a great idea for a Kickstart project.