MUSLIMS in Kenya should not be subjected to new noise pollution rules.
Reacting to a recent directive issued by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Adan Wachu, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, has advised mosques to ignore the initiative and continue calling the faithful to prayer as they have always done.
Adan Wachu
Wachu added:
For Muslims and Islam, a call to prayer cannot be under any circumstance or instances be equated to a sound or noise that is undesirable or nuisance.
And he pointed out that the call to prayer is usually transmitted through a loudspeaker which is:
Controllable and unharmful to human health and environment. It only lasts for three to five minutes and the Supreme Council would therefore like to call on all Mosques to continue holding the prayers without any fear despite the new directive.
NEMA is be seeking to curb all noise pollution – loud and unreasonable sounds that disturbs the comfort and safety of others and the environment.
The new rules, known as the Noise and Excessive Vibration Pollution (Control) Regulations, 2009, will affect individuals, firms and organisations carrying out activities that produce noise and excessive vibration within a town’s central business district, a residential area, a silent zone, or any other area declared a silent zone.
They also apply to street preachers, touts and those who promote or sell anything by shouting.
According to the directive, street preachers, and other people planning to install public address systems that exceed permissible noise levels, however, will required to obtain a seven-day license for 2,000 shillings.
Commenting on the report on the Daily Nation site, one reader said:
Hey this is Kenya and not Cairo for heaven’s sake. We want to live like Kenyans and not like Egyptians or Arabs. No noise! Period … Stone age cultures should not be integrated into the 21st century systems … It’s so annoying, especially the morning one. STOP this! You aren’t special in any way!!!
Earlier this year there were cries of “persecution” from Christians in London when Noise Abatement Notices were served on two churches – the All Nations Centre in Kennington and the Immanuel House of Worship Church in Walthamstow.
In the latter case the notice was slapped on the church following a single complaint from a Muslim living nearby.
According to this report, an environmental health enforcement officer told the pastor that the church had to keep the noise down so as not to offend Muslims living in the area. He said:
This is a Muslim borough; you have to tread carefully.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
December 11th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Re: “For Muslims and Islam, a call to prayer cannot be under any circumstance or instances be equated to a sound or noise that is undesirable or nuisance.”
It seems that it was unnecessary to add “and who cares about what the kufirs think” since this was a given.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Islam is by far the most obtrusive and dangerous of all the faiths.
I do believe I detest it.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I don’t believe it – they’ve even got “magic” loudspeakers now which are “unharmful to human health and environment”! Whatever will they come up with next?
December 11th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Maybe it would be better to employ the Mental Health Act, and tell ALL religionists to shut up!
December 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Yea, the call to prayer only lasts 3-5 mins., but five times a day. It’s enough to make a worm squirm.
December 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Interesting – where in the Koran is electrical voice amplification technology made obligatory for Muslims?
Once you offer religious exemptions for one form of pollution, why not the rest? Releasing corrosive liquids into the vicinity of Afghan schoolgirls springs to mind…
I think a bloke with a loud voice who’s prepared to go up a minaret in all weathers should be allowed to shout for a bit, but that’s your lot.
December 11th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
We are [insert religion] so rules, laws and common sense don’t apply. Or, we are muslims so we can do as we please and don’t give a s*** about anyone else, so shut up or we’ll riot, bomb……
And another thing: funny how these stone-age imbeciles use modern Western technology when it suits them.
December 11th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
It’s the 21st century (not that those ninnies have realized it). They have these things called “personal alarms”. They can even cram them into things like wristwatches. How about the people get little personal alarms and set them for the times they need to pray rather than have the entire city disturbed by screeching speakers five times a day?
Or are the Muslim Powers-that-be admitting that without all this fuss their little minions aren’t responsible enough to jump through all the hoops?
December 11th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Where I used to live there was this crazy lady who would stand in the middle of a roundabout at a major junction shouting incoherently at people. Harmless really and nobody was too bothered. But I don’t think we would have felt quite the same were she to use an amplifier and speakers or shout in a residential area.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
No, they can’t use personal alarms, or other sensible means of alerting themselves to the time of prayer, Buffy, because that wouldn’t get right up people’s noses and say “We’re the Muslims and we worship the Only God, and we’re the only ones who are right and everyone else is the spawn of Satan”, etc, etc, etc!!
And since when, precisely, have we had Muslim Boroughs in this country?
December 11th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
My father; Who lives there temporarily, says that every single day at 5 ish in the morning he has to get up because of the morning call of the muslims.
He says it is annoying and impossible to sleep!
December 11th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
The Muzzies get everyone down
‘Cos their call is heard all over town:
The loudspeaker blares
As it calls them to prayers,
But the folk say,”Please keep the noise down!”
December 11th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“Our speakers are magic, my friend,”
Said the mullah, who’s quite round the bend.
“You need have no fears -
They will not harm your ears:
Could you now the new dictate amend?”
December 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
You know what I think that if there was an afterlife Mo is laughing his ass off, or laughing so hard he coughed a lung up. The joke unfortunately is on us as no-one has the balls to stand up to these idiots.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
pablo. You got it. We just lack the balls to hit back. And we do have the fire power because we are literate, educated and able to hit back. And that includes that Thought for the Day abomination which we atheists are forced to pay for. For how much longer do we leave it to Richard Dawkins and others and, yes, Barry Duke before we step up to the plate and hit back.
We have decency, truth, facts with us. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Let us give it a go. They have nothing.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
And people thought the swiss silly for outlawing minarets.
Maybe they don’t want to deal with this type of BS?
But since religion is essentially stone age in character and anti-science then they should go back to the yelling and give up the science based high tech speakers.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
It’s not only the Muzzies, though, is it? What about that couple who had to sell their farm because of an ancient agreement that some owner of their land had in the Middle Ages, saying that they were responsible for the upkeep of the local church? They are not the only ones to have found this out to their cost recently, either! Why do the courts not rip up such blatantly outdated agreements, and how on earth can good, kind, Christian people see homeowners thrown out onto the street just to preserve the C of E’s billions? It makes me furious!!
December 11th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Well I am going to do my bit by getting a jesus and mo t-shirt and go wondering around town with it on. Any religous types that want to engage in meaningful debate can do so with me on the issues portrayed on the t-shirt. If they feel out raged I will merely point out the countless atrocities carried out in the name of their god.
December 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
These people are fanatical, yet when Richard Dawkins gets a bit hot under the collar at their ignorance and pig-headed stupidity someone has to ask what exactly it is that he’s getting so worked up about!
December 11th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Pablo – go for it mate. Debate and reason are anathema to fundies of all persuasions. Enlighten them!
December 11th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
pablo. Same here. That is my approach. Let’s go. I assure you, they will back off. I have done it. I have NEVER found anyone to stand up to me. Even Jehova’s Witnesses say, “I will ask for the answer and come back to you.” I am still waiting. Honestly. You cannot lose. Same when you write to the local papers. They have nothing. Enjoy yourself. I have. The media will start asking for your opinion. Be courteous, be restrained or they will not come back. Quote the bible,especially contradictions, and ask for an explanation – courteousley as in “it would help me if you would explain, please.” NEVER lose your temper. You will be a local celebrity.
December 12th, 2009 at 12:47 am
I’m sorry on this one folks, but I have no problem with this one. I lived, for a v. short time, in a muslim country, and did not find it intrusive.
Saying that, I think Ace Of Spades by Motorhead is a sublime bit of music, so I’m probably not the best judge!
December 12th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Azaan “unharmful to human health”? They must be kidding.
Asked if he could he ever imagine his own image up there at Mount Rushmore, Barack Obama quipped “I don’t think my ears would fit. There’s only so much rock up there.†Later he explained in his Cairo speech, “As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk.”
December 12th, 2009 at 10:27 am
loud speakers are harmful
you are right – especially if the pitch is too high and lasts for a long time.
Isn’t rock music dangerous as well .
So lets stop listening to loud music you rational people .
or do we shape , issue and make laws according to our self desires????!!
What about our church bells on Sundays ???
What about the young driving with a loud stereo in their cars?
let us be realistic and fair to humans without prejudice.
December 12th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Sorry mat but you will find most people will agree with you for the most part. Ya some xtians will want their church bells and islam their screaming. But most people agree that very loud anything is a disruption and best left not doing it.
Loud lawnmowers??? Ya get that band to so I don’t have to do my lawn. Or we will have to all buy goats or maybe a communal goat???
December 12th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Church bells can be VERY objectionable if you live near them, but most people know all about them before they move in!