South African high court prohibits Muslim call to prayer. Why it got it wrong
HELENA VAN COLLER, Associate Professor in Public Law, Rhodes University THE High Court in Durban, the port city in KwaZulu-Natal on the east coast of South Africa, has granted an interdict against a mosque, stopping its call to prayer (the athaan or adhan) because it can be heard from a neighbour’s house across the street. The neighbour had complained that the noise deprived him of the enjoyment of his property and interrupted his peace and quiet. The court found that the constitutional right to freedom of religion did not guarantee the practice of the religion in the form of the…