搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。
(单词翻译)
By Ursula Lindsey
The Egyptian government has announced plans to unify1 the call to prayer that is broadcast from thousands of different loudspeakers in the country's capital. The idea has been criticized by some as governmental interference in religion.
The minister of Religious Endowments, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, announced the plans to synchronize2 the call to prayer using a wireless3 network. The minister said every day he receives complaints about the excessive noise from loud speakers.
The call to prayer, a Muslim tradition dating back to the seventh century, is broadcast five times a day through loudspeakers from the minarets4 of Cairo's 4,000 or so mosques6.
Ingy Ghannam, the news editor of the popular Islam Online site, says the measure to synchronize the calls will diminish the importance of imams, who lead the prayers at mosques, and of muezzin, who make the call to prayer.
"This will totally diminish the role of the imam, or the muezzin of the mosque5. It won't be his decision. It won't be his voice. It's going to be a higher authority," she said.
The government-appointed Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, issued a statement on Saturday saying it was religiously legitimate7 to unify the call. But opposition8 papers and people writing on Islamic Web sites criticized the initiative as un-Islamic, and suggested that the government had plans to ban the dawn prayer, the earliest of the day's five prayers.
Ms. Ghannam says those who are suspicious of the proposal perceive it as driven by what they see as Western pressure to exert more control over Islamic institutions and practices.
"In other Arab countries, like in Tunisia for example, you go to the mosque with an ID [identification]. You have to have an ID to go into a mosque," she said. "I mean, putting restrictions9 of mosques, on activities in mosques, this is what people are fearing. That this is only one step ahead of changing the whole religious aspect of Egypt, or controlling people who go to mosques."
Ms. Ghannam said an alternative to the synchronized10 calls could be having muezzin stop using loudspeakers.
Ursula Lindsey, for VOA News, Cairo.
注释:
loudspeaker扩音器, 喇叭
Religious Endowments 宗教基金会
synchronize同步
minaret 尖塔
diminish 减少
imam [伊斯兰]阿訇, 教长
muezzin报告祷告时刻的人
religiously虔敬地,虔诚地
Tunisia突尼斯(北非国家)
1 unify | |
vt.使联合,统一;使相同,使一致 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 synchronize | |
v.使同步 [=synchronise] | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 wireless | |
adj.无线的;n.无线电 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 minarets | |
n.(清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的)光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 mosque | |
n.清真寺 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 mosques | |
清真寺; 伊斯兰教寺院,清真寺; 清真寺,伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 restrictions | |
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 synchronized | |
同步的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。