Vishvas News found in its investigation that Saudi Arabia has not issued any guidelines to ban loudspeakers in mosques during Ramzan, rather the guidelines were issued months ago to keep the volume down.
New Delhi (Vishvas News): A post is going viral on the internet which claimed that the government of Saudi Arabia has banned loudspeakers in mosques and has also banned Azaan on loudspeakers just before the start of the month of Ramzan. Vishvas News team fact-checked the viral post and found the claim related to it to be misleading. It was found out that the Saudi Arabia government has not banned loudspeakers in mosques but issued guidelines to keep the volume down a few months back.
Claim:
Sharing the viral post (archive link) on March 13, 2023, Facebook user Mrityunjay Kumar wrote, “Saudi Arabia bans loudspeakers on mosques!!”
Investigation:
During our investigation of the viral post, Vishvas News team found that many Indian websites have also carried misleading news. News websites including News18 (archive link), India TV (archive link) and Live Hindustan (archive link) have carried the news regarding the misleading claim.
When we did an open search on Google, a news report by Gulf News, published on January 19, 2023, was found, which stated, “About two months ago, Sheikh Dr. Abdul Latif bin Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh, Minister of Islamic Affairs, has set the number of outdoor loudspeakers at four to make prayer calls in all mosques across the Kingdom.”
The news report further stated that “It was also emphasized that loudspeakers cannot be used for additional prayers during Ramadan. The Saudi government had banned live broadcast of prayers from mosques on all types of media during last Ramadan”.
Ministry of Islamic Affairs of Saudi Arabia on March 3 also tweeted the guidelines related to loudspeakers. The tweet didn’t mention anything about banning the loudspeakers before Ramzan. In the tweet, guidelines related to Namaz, cleanliness and the Imam of the mosque have been mentioned.
According to a report published by Reuters in May 2021, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Saudi Arabia said in a circular that the volume of loudspeakers in mosques should not exceed one-third of the current one. After the call to prayer, the loudspeakers should be switched off and should not be played till the sermon.
Vishvas News contacted Saudi Arabian journalist Saud Harbi for further verification. He said, “The Saudi government has given instructions on reducing the volume of the loudspeakers”. He further said that “the claim that the Saudi government has banned loudspeakers is fake”.
We then scanned the account of Facebook user Mrityunjay Kumar who shared the misleading post. His account is followed by over 23,000 people.
Conclusion: Vishvas News found in its investigation that Saudi Arabia has not issued any guidelines to ban loudspeakers in mosques during Ramzan, rather the guidelines were issued months ago to keep the volume down.
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