 (AKI) – Two of Indonesia’s leading Islamic organisations are squabbling over whether mobile phone ringtønes that reproduce the Islamic call to prayer or verses from the Koran are a good thing or a sin.
| They're sinful. I'm positive of that. |
In Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, such ringtønes are becoming more and more popular among the population. Maruf Amin, the head of the Indonesia Ulema Council, the highest government-sanctioned religious institution, argued that it is a positive development that could help people to often think about God. “Any incoming call will make the owner of the mobile phones remember the Creator. I do not see this as an abuse towards Islam,” he told the Indonesia news service ‘detik.’ "It's even good. When we're waiting for something, we could use the time and listen to the call to prayer, for example,” he added.
On the other side of the fence, Amlir Syaifa Yasin, a member of the fatwa council of the Islamic Propagation Council of Indonesia has said that he is dead against it and warned that it could potentially degrade the religion.
| "Yup. I'm agin it. It'll degrade our religion. Yup." |
"It's not appropriate. Allah revealed every verse of the Koran to the Prophet Mohammed and it should not be seen as a decoration, let alone an incoming call tone on mobile phønes,” he told "It could ring anywhere. What if it rings in the toilet?” he asked. "Where's Mahmoud?"
"In the dumper."
"He remembered not to take his phone, didn't he?" |
“The Koran can't be read or sung in any place, especially not in the toilet. If this happens it's considered as insulting the religion,” he said.
| "If it rings he's gotta kill himself!" |
“This is a new thing in Indonesia and it needs to be looked at closely – he continued – but I would tend to prohibit it.”
| "'Course, I'd prohibit most things. Especially the new ones." |
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