Imams told not to install mobile jammers

Jeddah: The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance has warned imams against installing mobile phone jammers (devices designed to block communication signals) inside mosques to prevent ringtones from disturbing worshippers, a local newspaper reported.

The ban on the installation of such devices comes following several complaints to the ministry's offices in different regions of the Kingdom that these devices block communication signals of their phones as well as Internet in their houses.

Radwan Al-Radwan, Imam at Al-Akhlas Mosque in Jeddah's Rawdah neighborhood, told the newspaper that mobile jammers were previously installed inside mosques to prevent the noise and disturbance caused by the ringing of phones while during prayers. “After some time, a circular was issued to ban the installation of such devices because of its risks in the first place on people suffering cardiovascular diseases with pacemakers in their bodies. Curiously, the mobile jammers actually disrupt the functioning of these devices,” said the imam.

“Our only choice now is to advise people to turn off their mobiles once they are inside the mosques, especially as some ringtones are certainly not appropriate for a place of worship, let alone for outside the mosque.

Such houses of worship are respectable and sacred places and people must bear this in mind,” he added.

Another Imam who preferred anonymity said that the reason these devices were installed in the past is because some people are not polite and don't care about the sanctity of a mosque. “They disrupt the serenity and peace of the mosque with their ringtones without any respect for worshippers," he added.