Post date: Nov 17, 2016 9:20:30 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/world/middleeast/lod-israel-muslim-prayer.html?ref=middleeast
This New York Times article discusses a controversial new proposal that would allow the government to ban the use of loudspeakers by mosques and other houses of worship. The bill, supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seen by some as both an affront to both religious freedom and part of a larger effort by the Israeli government to oppress the country’s Muslim population.
This article reflects many of the topics we have learned about in class. The most prominent of these is its relation to Spadola’s discussion of the Call. While Spadola’s book discusses the use of mass mediated calls within the Islamic Tradition, this article expands upon his ideas and applies them to both the competing within Islam and across religious traditions in the Jewish Israeli’s response to the Islamic call. The oral call of the Muezzin itself can be seen as one form of mass-mediated call, because everyone in the immediate vicinity can hear it. The use of the loudspeaker has the effect of creating unity amongst Muslims in the community, while also controlling and highlighting difference between Muslims and non-Muslims. In response to the Muezzin’s calls, one Israeli city, Lod, “would broadcast the Shema, a central prayer that begins “Hear O Israel,” to counter the mosques’ call”. In addition to this, the conflict over the loudspeakers has been used by the Arab block in the Knesset as a way of uniting Muslims, and Israel’s Arabs more broadly, in both religious and political aims. This is similar to Spadola’s examination of how the calls were employed by the Moroccan government during the Green March, “Ahmad Tibi, a leader of the Arab members of the… Knesset, said Mr. Netanyahu was inflaming anti-Muslim sentiments. “If the muezzin law passes the Knesset, I call on the Arab public in Israel to rise up; I call for a civil popular uprising,” he told a Lebanese television outlet. “All Muslims must be called to protect mosques, to defend the calls from the mosques”.
In addition to this, this article’s portrayal of the Middle East as a region of perpetual conflict can be seen as a reification of orientalist portrayals. The article begins with a dichotomous framing of the issue, as Jews against noise pollution vs. Muslims and their religious freedom.