Netanyahu supports bill to ban loudspeakers for mosque calls to prayer

Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his support for a proposed law that would ban mosques from using loudspeaker systems for the call to prayer inside Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister told his Likud Party ministers that he backs the bill proposed by the Yisrael Beiteinu Member of the Knesset Anastasia Michaeli to ban all such loudspeaker. In reality, this would only affect the calls to prayer emanating from mosques across the country.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Netanyahu told his colleagues, “There’s no need to be more liberal than Europe”, a reference to bans affecting mosques and Muslims in Brussels and France.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation was scheduled to discuss the proposed bill yesterday, but the discussion was postponed for later this week; the specific day for the debate has not been determined yet.