These days it seems as if even the slightest bit of contention or problem can result in a full out riot.
However, the residents of Premnagar Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh have shown that not everything needs to be made into a, us against them, kind of thing.
The issue at hand here was the loudspeakers of 7 mosques that were being used to give out the ‘sehri’ wake-up call at 3 am due to the ongoing festival of Ramazan.
The residents of the town have approached the local authorities about dealing with this issue and how the loud calls are disruptive and not allowing the residents to rest peacefully.
The surprising factor here though is the fact that among the complainants are both Hindus as well as a few Muslims.
The complainants with a memorandum have reached out to local administration and asked that either the loudspeakers be muted or taken down.
Why This Is A Good Thing?
Although the Muslim complainants have received a less than warm response and Asif Beg, who is one of the complainants, was allegedly targeted by some people and was quoted saying “They stopped me near the mosque when I was on my way home in the evening and told me that I would go to hell as I had complained against the mosque loudspeakers. They even assaulted me and escaped from the scene,” Beg said.
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Another complainant who is also the deputy shahr qazi in Bareilly, Maulana Shahabbudin Rizvi agreed with the issue raised and said that, “It’s wrong to use loudspeakers persistently to wake up people for sehri. Ideally, there should be just one wake-up call within permissible decibel levels. Some clerics are using recorded voices and playing them to bother others, which is against the spirit of Ramzan.”
The reason why this is good is because of the way the situation was dealt with and how the residents went about handling it.
There is no denying the fact that many Indian cities have a major noise pollution, be it from mandirs during Navratri and Durga Puja times, or be it from mosques or even if it is just wedding baraats with their loud music interrupting the peace and quiet of residential places.
But if residents can come together in such a similar manner, putting aside religions and personal prejudices and actually acknowledge the problem then it might just be solved that much more quickly.
Image Credits: Google Images
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