The office of the National Chief Imam has rubbished calls for text messages, instead of microphones, to be used for the call to prayer by Muslims.

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His comment comes after Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovations, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, called for the use of WhatsApp and text messages in calling for prayers.

In his view, such a move will help limit the noise produced when microphones are used for the call to prayer during worship.

“In the house of worship, why is it that the noise will (not) be limited to the house of worship…and again maybe from the mosque, why is it that time for prayer would not be transmitted with a text message or WhatsApp so the Imam will send WhatsApp message to everybody that the time for prayer is up so appear,” Prof. Boateng suggested in an interaction with the media.

However, in a sharp riposte, the National Chief Imam’s spokesperson has shot down the Minister’s calls.

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According to him, such a suggestion is unreasonable and will only qualify as a “violation of our religious rights”.

Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, Sheikh Shaibu said: “If you listen to the soundbite you’d notice that he [Minister] himself has indicated that the suggestion can start controversies. In other words, he knows the consequences of such a thing.

“For us the impracticability is clear. The unreasonability is so clear. It is not practical.”

Sheikh Shaibu further stressed that the call to prayer has a textual basis in the Quran and Muslims do not intend to depart from such an Islamic tenet.