Uproar over prayer calls in Muslim Morocco – MSNBC Wire Services- msnbc.com

Posted on August 10th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Morocco.

Uproar over prayer calls in Muslim Morocco – MSNBC Wire Services- msnbc.com
Decibel levels deepen line between drive to modernize and political Islam
The Associated Press
RABAT, Morocco – The muezzins’ calls echo well before daybreak, summoning the Muslim faithful to daily prayers and reminding foreign tourists in the Moroccan capital how far they are from home.

But the rising decibel level is deepening fault lines between a government drive to modernize and a wave of rigorous political Islam.

Morocco, a country of 33 million people, gets more than 7 million tourists a year. And there are worries that some may be put off by the five heavily amplified calls a day, each lasting five minutes, to “hasten to the prayer, hasten to the prayer.”

Muslim purists counter that authorities are compromising religion to please Westerners and the country’s liberal elite.

The frictions are happening in a country that is considered moderate on matters of religion and is a U.S. ally and at a time when there are fears that al-Qaida is establishing itself in North Africa.

Morocco has lately been shaken by two different cases in which the government, or wealthy Westerners, have been accused of plotting to force down the volume on the muezzins who make the call to prayer. (more…)

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