They say the calls, made five times a day, have been disturbing residents of the Nyarugenge district, home to the capital’s biggest mosques.

But an official from a Muslim association criticised it, saying they could instead keep the volume down.

Some 1,500 churches have been closed for not complying with building regulations and noise pollution.

The majority of Rwandans are Christian. Muslims make up around 5% of the population.

The government says the Muslim community has complied with the ban.

Analysis: Rwanda’s open secret

Ally Yusuf Mugenzi: Editor of BBC Great Lakes service

To understand the latest round of regulations imposed by Rwandan authorities on religious groups, we have to look back to the 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 people were killed.

A number of the Roman Catholic churches, where thousands of Tutsis had taken refuge, became killing grounds during the 100-day rampage.

Rwandans lost faith in the powerful institution and gravitated towards Pentecostalism and Islam.

Today’s noise pollution concerns have silenced the loudspeakers on Kigali’s mosques. But it would be wrong to say that Muslims are being targeted. They can still go to mosques and pray five times a day.

The same cannot be said for the Pentecostals.

About 1,500 Pentecostal churches across the country have been closed over the past month, leaving worshippers with nowhere to pray.

This might have something to do with Rwanda’s open secret: the country’s religious denominations are expected to pledge loyalty to the government of long-time President Paul Kagame.

Pentecostal leaders might not be toeing the line.

But the authorities are right to focus on those churches’ disregard for building regulations. Many of them hold noisy services, are badly constructed, situated in residential homes, and are a legitimate health and safety concern.

“I have found that they have begun to respect it and it has not stopped their followers from going to pray according to their praying time,” Havuguziga Charles, a local official from Nyarugenge told the BBC’s Great Lakes service.

This comes as the government continues its clampdown on substandard churches across the East African country.

Most of them were small Pentecostal churches, and one mosque was also closed.

The government says the reason is that some preachers “deceive their congregation with misleading sermons”, AFP reports.

But some preachers have accused the government of trying to control their message to congregants in a country accused by human rights groups of stifling free speech.
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By: BBC

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Stephen Osei told Citi News, that the Pastor, Reverend Kwame Takyi, who was put behind bars around 2:30am on Saturday, and released at 8:00am same day, is deeply traumatized by the incident.

The calm-looking Pastor could not speak to Citi News due to the trauma.

Stephen Osei said they were shocked that the Regional Minister stormed their watch night service in the early hours of Saturday to disrupt the service.

Mr. Osei Mensah is said to have burst the church building with armed Police officers at Anwomaso-High Tension, a suburb in Kumasi, and ordered them to halt an ongoing Watch Night Service because of the noise making.

The Minister, who lives a few metres away from the church, said he had earlier on gone to the premises around 12:30 am, to warn the congregation.

He later went there after about 2 hours, with the police officers and ordered the arrest of the head pastor, since the noise hadn’t stopped.

The Secretary of the House of Bethel Ministry, Stephen Osei, narrating the incident to Citi News said “The regional Minister came to our church and he said we were making noise as it was time for him to sleep. He entered there and told us to stop the noise. Our pastors wanted to speak to him but he wasn’t ready to speak to our pastors.”

Mr. Osei also said the Regional Minster used “all sort of abusive words” against them.

The church’s Secretary also suggested that police carried out the arrest unwillingly.

“At a point, the police felt the noise that was going on wasn’t something that could disrupt the place because it is a programme we do every last Friday of the Month. He [the Regional Minister] has always been here with us and this time, we felt surprised this thing was going on.”

“Normally what we do is that by 1:30 AM, we leave the microphone to the pastor. To preach and by then, we mute  everything in the room. People are not allowed to sing in the room,” he explained.

‘Noisy church’ left me no choice – Minister defends pastor’s arrest

Meanwhile, the Regional Minister has told Citi News he had no option than to involve the police to disrupt the watch night service of the House of Bethel Ministry, as they were making excessive noise in the early hours of Saturday morning.

According to the Minister, the church, which is about 100 metres from his private home, ignored his previous warnings, as they appeared to have increased the noise levels in an act of defiance.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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It said during the period, all religious bodies and the general public within the metropolis will be expected to reduce the level of noise they make.

[contextly_sidebar id=”HqCkpgB5gwX7GY8GfmhdPylFtCTTDqFa”]The ban on drumming and noise-making is an integral feature of the annual Homowo festival by the Ga people in Accra.

The Public Relations Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Numo Blafo III in a Citi News interview said the AMA had to intervene to ensure that all groups and organization complied with the directive due to consistent conflicts between the traditional authorities and groups affected by the ban, especially Christian bodies.

“Normally when this ban on noise making comes to force, there is a conflict between the traditional authorities and most of the time, some religious bodies and it creates tension and that is why the AMA comes in so that there would be some kind of sanity within the metropolis,” he said.

He added that churches, mosques and other organizations that made use of loud speakers and other noisemaking materials must minimize the noise they make

“There should be minimization of noise making especially in our churches and among those who use loudspeakers.”

The ban is expected to be lifted on Thursday, June 8, 2017.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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