Egypt’s unified call to prayer
Government orders all mosques in Cairo to sound radio-transmitted azhan simultaneously.
The Egyptian government has embarked on a controversial plan to unify the azhan, or Islamic call to prayer, in the capital Cairo.
One muezzin will sound a call to prayer that will be transmitted by radio frequencies to thousands of mosques across the city simultaneously.
Officials say the reason for the programme is to avoid a discrepancy in the different prayer times between mosques and to stop the overlapping sounds of prayer calls from nearby mosques.
Although many muezzins complain that they will not be able to perform as a result of the unified call, the government insists that none of Cairo’s 730 muezzins will lose their jobs.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo on what some religious scholars are calling an interference of the government in religious affairs.