Palestinians protest Israel's mosque bill

Arab News ^ | Dec 18, 2011 | MOHAMMED MAR’I

[americanophile]

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Thousands of Arab Palestinians took to the streets in Israel to protest a mosque bill that will ban muezzins from using loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayers.

Sami Abu Shihadeh, the Arab member of Yaffa (Jaffa) municipal council, said the residents held the protests in his city and Umm Al-Fahem, Shafa’amr, Baqah Al-Gharbiyeh, Tarsheeha, Al-Taybeh, Nazareth, Negev and Al-Teireh against the bill, proposed by Knesset member Anastasia Michaeli of rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to bring the bill to a vote by his Cabinet on Sunday after he failed to muster enough support to pass it at a session last week. Explaining his backing for the bill, Netanyahu said there was “no need to be more liberal than Europe,” in an apparent reference to the 2010 Swiss law that forbids mosques from having minarets.

If approved, the new law would ban loudspeakers from all mosques in Israel.

[americanophile]

Good!

[tet68]

law would ban loudspeakers from all mosques

let them all get pagers...

[circlecity]

Does the bill apply only to Mosques or to Synagogues too? Not that I’ve ever heard of a speaker on a Synagogue but the bill should apply equally.

[americanophile]

lol!

[americanophile]

Why? The Muslims pray five times a day, so it's a deliberate nonstop cacophony meant to drown out everything else. Israel is a Jewish state that allows for freedom of worship, but it need not abide the nonstop electronically-enhanced conquest of its public space.

[ZX12R]

let them all get pagers...

Funny! Does Islam have something against time keeping? Like a watch?

[ml/nj]

the new law would ban loudspeakers from all mosques in Israel.

Wow! That would be great. Those things are incredibly annoying.

ML/NJ

[JudgemAll]

Not all religions are created equal.

Besides, loud speakers are a political protest cock blocking mean used by mobs.

[circlecity]

"The Muslims pray five times a day, so it's a deliberate nonstop cacophony meant to drown out everything else. Israel is a Jewish state that allows for freedom of worship, but it need not abide the nonstop electronically-enhanced conquest of its public space."

I agree essentially, but the rule should still work both ways to be fair and non biased.

[Old Sarge]

During my time in Iraq, everyone knew that the mosques were pep rallies for the enemy. They’d come out of the services fired up by the hate speech of the imams, ready to commit jihad.

It gave rise to the saying, “When the yodeling stops, the bomb drops.”

[circlecity]

"Not all religions are created equal."

Of course. There's Christianity and a bunch of false religions.

[montag813]

Does the bill apply only to Mosques or to Synagogues too? Not that I’ve ever heard of a speaker on a Synagogue but the bill should apply equally.

No, Jews don't go for that, or for converting non-Jews by the sword.

[StormEye]

"let them all get pagers..."

I agree! In every news report about Arabs rioting or denouncing Israel and the USA in the streets, they all have cell phones. Make them text the "call to prayer" or just phone it in. Or better yet, teach them how to tell time on a watch or clock.

[annieokie]

""""let them all get pagers...""""

You are a problem solver. That's cool. Maybe they could TEXT that gibberish.

[americanophile]

I think it's okay to be biased with those who don't recognize your right to exist, but neither synagogues nor churches have comparable practices, so it would be irrelevant.

[circlecity]

fairness is always relevant.

[americanophile]

Right...

[circlecity]

looks like two sides of the same coin

[americanophile]

Wow. Not at all. One side is committed to the extermination of the other. There is no moral equivalency at all.

[Stepan12]

They don't like it? They should leave: They Must Go