CAIRO – The Irish national television (RTÉ) has turned down calls by a prominent Muslim scholar in Ireland to broadcast a call to prayer at iftar time during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
RTÉ’s Head of Religious Programs Roger Childs said he had raised the request with programmers but “as I suspected, they say it won’t be possible to accede to (it),” The Irish Times reported.
Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, kicks-off on June 6.
In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.
Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to become closer to Allah through prayer, self-restraint and good deeds.
It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur’an.
Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.
The request for adhan was made by Ali Selim, the main spokesman for the Clonskeagh mosque in Dublin.
Turning the request down, the RTÉ said that it could not be done because TV schedules were fixed, but the end of Ramadan was not.
“Because the prayer moves daily by approximately a minute, it doesn’t, by and large, coincide with any of the junctions in our broadcasting schedule,” Childs added.
Disappointing
The decision was disappointing for Dr Selim.
“In Muslim countries the commencement of the period of fasting and its end is marked with a prayer call chanted through loud speakers placed on the top of the minarets. It is also aired through radio and TV channels,” he said.
Instead of the adhan, RTÉ will mark Ramadan “for the second year running” with “short, high-profile Ramadan diaries from a number of leading Muslims living in Ireland.
They include Dr Taufiq al-Sattar, whose wife and three children died in a Leicester arson attack in December 2013, Bohemians winger Ayman Ben Mohamed, and Tullamore restaurant manager Asad Mahmud Khondkar.
This year, Ramadan will be one of the longest in Ireland as it coincides with the longest days of the year.
Muslim rise daily at about 2.30am for the Suhur meal. Their next meal, Iftar, takes place at about 10pm.
Last year, Germany’s public television and radio broadcaster Bayerischen Rundfunk broadcast prayers from a mosque marking the end of Ramadan on its evening schedules.
In 2013 Britain’s Channel 4 became the first mainstream TV company in the United Kingdom to broadcast a daily morning prayer during Ramadan. The other daily four prayer times were aired on its website.