Palestine: Church defies Israeli ban, performs muslim call to prayer

Palestine: Church defies Israeli ban, performs muslim call to prayer

December 02, 2016
After Israel banned the call to the dawn prayer from three mosques in Jerusalem, the call to prayer was sounded from the highest tower in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
After Israel banned the call to the dawn prayer from three mosques in Jerusalem, the call to prayer was sounded from the highest tower in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai.


By Ezzoubeir Jabrane

In reaction to the Israeli authorities’ unjustifiable ban on the call to prayers in occupied Jerusalem, Muslim residents of the city made the Islamic adhan (call to prayer), in unison, from the rooftops of their houses.

Videos documenting the incident went viral in social media throughout the entire Islamic world, stirring praise for the initiative and scorn for the continuous Israeli restrictions on religious freedom.

In a defiant show of solidarity against the Israeli decision to the unreasonable ban, a Christian church in the city of Nazareth made the unprecedented decision to send out the Islamic call to prayer from within its own walls. The powerful gesture of support stirred a massive wave of admiration in the Muslim world, which saw it as the epitome of the long-standing history of support and compassion between Muslims and Christians in Palestine.

According to Bassam Bahr, lawyer and head of a local committee in Abu Dis, the occupation authorities previously told the Muezzins, those who perform the call for prayer, that the call to dawn prayers would no longer be allowed.

In an interview with local news source Ma’an, Bahr described the ban as “unjustified,” as are all the religious restrictions Muslims in the occupied territory are subjected to.

Speculation cite the most obvious reason for the ban to be an Israeli backlash caused by a recent protest which took place in front of the house belonging to Jerusalem’s Mayor.

A group of Israeli settlers in Pisgat Zeev, an illegal settlement in eastern Jerusalem, denounced what they called the “noise pollution” of the Muslim call to prayer. – Morocco World News


December 02, 2016
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