Interview with Mathias Rohe about the legal framework of the Muslim call to prayer in times of Corona
On May 4, the news forum Qantara.de published an interview between the legal scholar, Islamic scientist and founding rector of the EZIRE, Mathias Rohe, and the chief editor of the Evangelischen Pressedienst [Protestant News Service], Judith Kubitschek. Rise gave the wish of many Islamic associations and mosques in Germany to amplify the call to prayer with loudspeakers, as in times of Corona it is not possible to hold a communal prayer.
Rohe provides Information about the legal conditions for such a provision in Germany and about the significance of the call to prayer in the Muslim practice of faith. At this, he stresses the fact, that those decisions require it to weigh the particular basic rights, such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion and negative freedom of religion – the right not to be confronted with religion – against each other.
The fact, that it it possible in Germany to find a provision for an amplified prayer call, as it happened in Duisburg, Rohe regards as a sign for the stregth of the rule of law, which guarantees also the rights of the Muslim minority – even though simultaneously an intensive social discussion about the topic is needed.