Mosques across England could sound Islamic call to prayer through loudspeakers

Mosques across the country could start sounding the daily call to prayer through loudspeakers following a series of pilot programmes.

Several councils gave permission for the call – known as the adhan – to be broadcast each evening to help followers keep in touch with their Mòsque during the lockdown.

Mosque elders are now planning to apply to councils to make the adhan a permanent fixture after Ramadan.

Allama Sadiq Qureshi, who is an imam at the Minhaj-ul-Quran mosque in Newham, East London, said: 'We want this practice to continue in the future.

'Just one symbolic adhan per day, if Newham council allow us. Just one adhan at the day time, at dhuhr [afternoon prayer], then it will be really good.'

He said the Newham Muslim Forum, a local umbrella body of mosques, is considering making the application after Ramadan.

At least 25 mosques in London and dozens more across the country have joined over the past four weeks.

The initiative began when Kensington and Chelsea Council in London gave permission to the borough's biggest mosque, known as the Al-Manaar, to start broadcasting out the nightly reminder.

Following that, Waltham Forest Council in North-East London allowed nine mosques in the borough to broadcast the adhan every evening and again on Friday afternoons.

One of the biggest mosques in the borough, the Waltham Forest Islamic Association (WFIA), sounded the adhan loud enough for it to be heard within a one-mile radius.

Video footage was posted on social media showing the muezzin – the cleric who makes the call to prayer – reciting from the rooftop of the mosque.

Other mosques in the borough have placed concert-style speakers on their front doors to make the call.

Elsewhere, a cleric performed the adhan as a one-off outside the towers of Canary Wharf for the evening prayer. Other venues included Chesham, Buckinghamshire and Preston, Lancashire.

Until now, most mosques in Britain have been banned from using loudspeakers on noise pollution grounds.