Silent Prayer
Urban areas of Ghana are noisy: traffic, loud music, street vendors, and more contribute to the problem. Authorities in the capital city of Accra are taking steps to counter one area that contributes to the noise: prayers. Mosques and churches use megaphones to announce calls to prayer, and the city is asking them to seek alternatives. “Why is it that time for prayer cannot be transmitted with text message or WhatsApp?” said environment minister Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng. “So the imam would send WhatsApp messages to everybody.” Imams don’t see that as a viable alternative, though. “The imam is not paid monthly,” said Fadama community mosque imam Sheik Usan Ahmed. “Where would he get the money to be doing that? We try to practice what is possible. So the text message or any other message is not a problem. But I don’t think it is necessary.” Others disagree. “Not everyone is on social media,” said Accra resident Kevin Pratt, “and not everyone is as literate as [Frimpong-Boateng] is.” (MS/Deutsche Welle) ...Surely there’s a new app already in the works: WhatsAllah.Original Publication Date: 22 April 2018
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 24.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 24.
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