This article is an extract version with revision. A more elaborate version is published in 2020 by Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI/Indonesian Institute of Sciences) under similar title, “Negotiating Soundscape: Practice and Regulation of Adzan in Indonesia”. Hirschkind’s ethical soundscapes will be employed as theoretical framework to analyse how Indonesian government and civil society negotiate social tension caused by the use of loudspeaker in Indonesian mosques. This article, however, will limit its study to the social aspect of Adzan. Discussion on the theological aspect will not be covered.
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For Muslims in Indonesia or those who live in Muslim majority countries, the cacophony of Adzan is part of daily life. It is positioned among the mandatory practice of Islamic ritual and served as microcosm beliefs essentials to Muslim’s faith (Al-Jaziri, 2004). Nasr in his work on Islamic art (1987) mentioned that Adzan (sound) is an extension of a mosque (place) which constitutes spiritual consciousness that very substance to human existence. In a similar vein, Schafer (1994) compares two marks in the Muslim community: the landmark (mosque) and the soundmark (Adzan). Both, according to Schafer, are the icons of Muslim’s social identity.
The practice of Adzan, however, cannot be isolated as one’s spiritual experience as it also touches the social dimension. In this context, Adzan discovers a new meaning of becoming a social border and a marker of a community (Lee, 2003). Problem arises when different religious communities shared the same soundscape; while Adzan is sacred for Muslim, it can be noise pollution for others. Indonesia experienced a bitter episode of such social friction in 2016, when Meliana, a residence of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatera, complained about the loud voice of Adzan. Upon her complaint, she was charged with blasphemy law and sentenced for eighteen months based on articles 156 and 156a of the Criminal Code (Tehusijarana and Gunawan, 2018). Before Tanjung Balai case, there are similar protest in Jakarta (2007 and again, in 2013), but addressed to Gereja Damai Kristus as people who lived nearby, protesting the bell sound coming from the Church. However, as no blasphemy law applied in both cases, an asymmetry application of the law is apparent.
Religious identities marker in a shared soundscape, such as Adzan and Church’s Bells, are tension-prone border. The Meliana case culminates social friction pertaining issues of Adzan that consistently contested in Indonesia religious public sphere.
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Discourse on Adzan in Indonesia is associated not only in the internal Muslim community but also public in general. The shared soundscape between different ethnic and religious groups demand a clear regulation in sound production. In regard to managing sound production in Indonesia’s religious public sphere, the Ministry of Religious Affairs published instructions to regulate the uses of loudspeaker in mosques. The instruction is based on previous regulations regarding religious freedom and public sermon, including: (1) Article 29 of the Constitution (Undang-undang Dasar 1945) which guarantee religious freedom for every citizen and freedom to perform religious rituals; (2) Regulation No. 44 1978 from the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Radio Broadcast for Sermon; (3) Instruction No. 9 1978 from the Ministry of Religious Affairs on the procedure for Mubaligh to Perform Sermon via Radio Broadcast; (4) Circular letter from the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Broadcasting Sermon on Radio; and (5) Circular letter No. 5 2022 from the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Regulation concerning Speaker in Mosque and Mushala.
Main points from the instruction are as follow: (1) Loudspeaker is used for Dakwah and performing Adzan, however, negative response is found due to the improper use of loudspeaker; (2) District body of the Ministry of Religious Affairs is obligate to provide guidance on the operational standard in using the loudspeaker to the mosque administrator; (3) Loudspeaker speaker should be used wisely in order to not disturbed the surrounding; (4) Professional maintenance is applied as basic standard to prevent cluttered noise that can disturbed the surrounding; (5) External loudspeaker is used only for Adzan with certain limit of time (fifteen minutes before Subuh and Dhuhur, five minutes before Ashar, Magrib and Isya); External loudspeaker can also be used for celebration of Idul Fitri and Idul Adha; (6) Other rituals, such as shalat, khutbah and prayers, only allow to be amplified using internal speaker. The instruction also covers details on the responsibility of Muadzin, who has to ensure their capacity in a good recital of Adzan; also covers the use of cassette for Qur’an recital that has to be in a good condition.
However, the 1978 instruction did not touch issue on the limitation of loudspeaker volume. The lack of clear regulation for loudspeaker volume has caused social friction which culminates in the Meliana case in 2016. In the court hearing, Meliana mentioned that she’s only asked to turn down the volume, but she’s, then, charge for disrespecting Adzan (Tehusijarana and Gunawan, 2018). In response to the Meliana case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a circular letter No. B.3940/DJ.III/HK.00.07/08/2018 restating the 1978 loudspeaker instruction which covers four points: (1) To copy the (Instruksi Bina Masyarakat Islam) Kep/D/101/1978 and share it to mosques and mushalla administrator, leader of Muslim organizations, majlis taklim (Muslim gathering) organizer, and all religious institutions; (2) To explain the (Instruksi Bina Masyarakat Islam) Kep/D/101/1978 and share it to mosques and mushalla administrator, leader of Muslim organizations, majlis taklim (Muslim gathering) organizer, and all religious institutions; (3) To use the (Instruksi Bina Masyarakat Islam) Kep/D/101/1978 as study material; and (4) To share the (Instruksi Bina Masyarakat Islam) Kep/D/101/1978 in social media in respective manner.
The unclear regulation on loudspeaker volume indicates the lack of rules in applying technology for religious rituals. Reflecting from previous case, an update regulation is published in 2022 by limiting the volume to maximum 100 dB (one hundred decibel) in every mosques and mushalas.
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Abdurrahman Wahid (1982) represented an internal voice from Muslim community with clear-cut self-critics:
“The Prophet Muhammad said, the obligation (religion) was erased from three kinds of people: those who were crazy (until they were cured), those who were drunk (until they came to their senses), and those who slept (until they woke up). As long as he is sleeping, a person is not burdened with any obligations. Allah Himself has provided a “mechanism” to regulate the wake and sleep of humans. in the form of our own body metabolism. So there is no reason to wake a sleeping person to pray - unless there is a valid cause according to religion, it is known as’ illat…. But 'illat cannot be perform indiscriminately. There must be exception for those who are not subject to obligations. Common sense is sufficient as a basis for reconsidering loud voice “wisdom” in the middle of the night - especially if preceded by prolonged tarhim and recitation of the Koran. What is more, if the technology that calls out loud in the blind world only uses tapes! While the mosque administrators themselves sleep peacefully at home.”
Wahid’s notion indicates that public discourse on the use of loudspeaker is still far from being finalized. One of the problems lies in the nature of soundscapes: it shared equally, yet it also imposed evenly. Kapchan (2017) ideas on claiming soundscapes, reflects the Islamic use of Adzan in Indonesia. Here’s an analogy: Dakwah (spreading of Islam) required tactics, and “every tactical listening listens for dissensus and thus becomes itself dissensual. "Wahid, and many other Islamic scholars who shared his view, declined to use the loudspeaker to define the Islam community; however, those who inclined also have their reasons.
Other countries, interestingly, shared similar tension as experienced by Indonesia. Egypt and India, according to Hirschkind (2006), have the most violent tension related to the use of cassette recorders and loudspeakers in religious rituals as routinely complained as “assault on the ears”. Many Muslim countries (such as Indonesia and Egypt) are driven by Pan-Islamism in reclaiming soundscape; while in India, strong religious affiliation of many different communities struggled in reclaiming the cities soundscapes. Another striving for acoustic identity is faced by the Muslim community in Europe for a different reason: to marked Muslim as part of the European community (Arab, 2017). Hirschkind (2006), however, noted that the problem of ethical soundscapes is: “The challenge moral consciousness, especially in light of the current danger of a world increasingly polarized along religious lines”.
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In reality, Wahid’s notion and Hirschkind’s idea on ethical soundscape are facing a grimed reality when it was reflected to the present mode of Islam in Indonesia. As religious conservatism arises due to political clientism which influenced by religious identity (Siregar, 2020), a space for inclusive public sphere and ethical soundscape seems to be diminished. Rather than embracing the diversity of sound, a trending demand for public sermon and public recital of Qur’an (mainly using the Mosque’s speaker) is louder than ever (Millie, 2017). A new regulation in 2022 is lack of public support as there are no discourse concerning ethical soundscape in Indonesian public sphere. With no firm sanctions, the regulation is voiceless against every violations.
Aliyuna Pratisti (16 July 2022)
References:
Al-Jaziri, A. (2004). Al-Fiqh ala Madzahib al-Arba, Jilid I. Darul Hadist.
Arab, P. T. (2017). Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Hirschkind, C. (2006). The Ethical Soundscape. Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. Columbia University Press.
Kapchan, D. (2017). Listening Acts: Witnessing the Pain (and Praise) of Others. In D. Kapchan (Ed.), Theorizing Sound Writing (pp. 277–293). Wesleyan University Press.
Lee, T. S. (2003). Technology and the Production of Islamic Space: The Call to Prayer in Singapore. In René T. A. Lysloff and Leslie & Gay (Eds.), Music and Technoculture. Wesleyan University Press.
Nasr, S. H. (1987). Islamic Art and Spirituality. State University of New York Press.
Pratisti, S. A. (2020). Negotiating Soundscape: Practice and Regulation of Adzan in Indonesia. Journal of Indonesian Social Science and Humanities, 10 (2), p. 75-83
Schafer, R. M. (1994). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Destiny Books.
Siregar, S.N. (2020). Patronage Democracy in Indonesia. Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 10 (1), doi: 10.14203/jissh.v10i1.158
Tehusijarana, K. M, and Gunawan, A. (2018). The Meiliana Case: How a noise complaint resulted in an 18-month jail sentence. The Jakarta Post. https://www.thejakartapost.com/.../the-meiliana-casehow-a...
Wahid, A. (1982, February 20). Islam Kaset dan Kebisingannya. Tempo.
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