Singer Sonu Nigam stirred up a storm in the early hours of Monday after he tweeted out his exasperation against early morning sounds of Azaan which are delivered on loudspeakers on Mosques everyday:
God bless everyone. I’m not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India
— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 16, 2017
And by the way Mohammed did not have electricity when he made Islam.. Why do I have to have this cacophony after Edison?
— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 17, 2017
I don’t believe in any temple or gurudwara using electricity To wake up people who don’t follow the religion . Why then..? Honest? True?
— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 17, 2017
Gundagardi hai bus…
— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 17, 2017
This opposition of Sonu Nigam to the practice of playing Azaan, earned him the wrath of many who proceeded to abuse, attack and curse him:
@sonunigam Jb Azan hoti hai to shaitan ko takleef hoti hai…
— Mohd Nehal Hashmi (@Mohdnehal395) April 17, 2017
@sonunigam bkwas bnad kr Haram zady kaminy zalil insan
Saly phly apny bap ka pata lgwa ley wo kon Kutty ky Bachy— Muzamil Aslam (@MuzamilAslam3) April 17, 2017
@sonunigam Tera saath sahi kiya #salmanbhai ab dekh tu tera iss industry se naam o nishaan mitt jayega
— Syed Abdul Ubaid (@ubaid_hunk) April 17, 2017
@sonunigam If u want to stop azaan …In future u will suffer throut cancer inshallah
— khan mubashir خراسان (@PATHAN_KHAN7) April 17, 2017
@sonunigam Tere Jaise kutte Pehle bhi bhok chuke hain Islam ke khilaf lekin Islam ka kuch na bigad sake
— Mohd irfan (@Irfan068) April 17, 2017
Apart from making a moral case, Sonu Nigam might also be legally correct when he calls for the scrapping of loudspeakers for delivering religious sermons. In a 2015 the Bombay High Court had observed that there were about 822 Mosques and 90 Temples which did not have licenses to operate loudspeakers.
Also in 2014 the Bombay High court had called for a removal of Illegal loudspeakers from Religious structures in Navi Mumbai and Mumbai the order which was also welcomed by Muslim leaders.
While the ruling applies to all religions, hardly any religion seems to be following the rules. Also for those who are indulging in Whataboutery, about whether Sonu has only singled out Islam, in 2014 Sonu had posted about the noise and the lack of cleanliness during Ganesh visarjan.
But, all social media users were not vile. Some even suggested a solution:
@sonunigam So become the Muslim and enjoy the Prayers. 🙂
— Mohsin Khan (@mohsinnow) April 17, 2017
And if Sonu doesn’t like the above solution, he can follow so-called journalist Zakka Jacob’s advice to filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri:
Where @Zakka_Jacob asks me to ‘move my house’ if #Azaan bothers me. Now you know why mainstream media is dying slowly. pic.twitter.com/ZJZDOvzQ9b
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) April 17, 2017
