Egyptian Government To Institute Centralized Call To Prayer In Cairo

In Egypt, the Ministry of Religious Endowments has put forward a plan to end the loud and disorganized calls to worship by some 4,000 mosques in Cairo and instead have a centralized call to prayer that is broadcast simultaneously to all the city's mosques. Yesterday's Washington Post says that the government plans to install receivers in all mosques, tuned to a single radio station that broadcasts the call to prayer from al-Azhar, one of the city's main Muslim houses of worship. The receivers will be activated at the proper times and shut off when the synchronized chant is over. Twenty-five muezzins have been selected to work in rotation chanting the call to prayer. The Religious Endowments Minister said the project will cost about $100,000, and should be ready to operate in Cairo in about eight months. Eventually the broadcasts will be extended to mosques in all large Egyptian cities.