Saif Ali Khan on Sonu Nigam’s azaan tweets: It was a little aggressive, initially
Saif Ali Khan has spoken on the azaan controversy sparked by Sonu Nigam last week through a series of tweets.
Saif Ali Khan is the latest celebrity after Kangana Ranaut and Javed Akhtar to weigh in on the azaan controversy sparked by singer Sonu Nigam with his tweets on Monday, April 17. The actor has said that he did find Sonu’s tweets a bit ‘aggressive’ initially.
In an interview to Indian Express, Saif said the loud sounding of the call to prayer shows an insecurity. “Don’t know who you are offending. At one level, I agree, the lesser sound the better. There should be certain decibel levels allowed across religious practices. I also understand the amplification of the sound during azaan comes from insecurity,” he said.
The actor then compared the situation in India to Israel. “Not just here but also in Israel apparently where three different religions co-exist. It’s been written about so I believe it’s the same. As a minority, you would like to make your presence felt and hopefully accepted. If someone says that it should be extinguished, it will make some people little uncomfortable. As a precursor to some sort of holocaust, it is the first thing you think of. There’s a bit of fear there,” he said.
“It’s fine to express your views on the decibel levels. I think that tweet was a bit aggressive though, initially. And I do think religion should be a private affair and we should be a secular country,” he added.
Sonu, in a series of tweets, had described the use of loudspeakers to broadcast sermons and calls to prayers by mosques, temples and gurudwaras as “forced religiousness”. He got his head tonsured by a celebrity hairstylist in response to a cleric, who had announced a Rs 10 lakh reward for getting Sonu Nigam’s head shaved.
The singer maintains that his tweets were against the use of loudspeakers in morning sermons and not aimed at any particular religion.
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