Israeli Mayor Storms Mosque to Silence Loudspeakers

An Israeli mayor has stormed a mosque in north-central Israel accompanied by police officers, trying to bully the local imam into lowering the volume of loudspeakers.

Yair Revivo, the mayor of the city of Lod, which is located 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) southeast of Tel Aviv, entered the Dahamshe Mosque at dawn on Friday, protesting at the volume at which the religious leader was broadcasting his sermon, Israeli paper Ha’aretz reported.

A confrontation emerged, with the police pushing back at the worshipers and turning the volume down.

Before bursting into the mosque, the mayor had called the police saying he wanted to stop the broadcast altogether, and reportedly tried to stop people from filming him while inside.

The Israeli police say they have reached an “agreement” forbidding broadcasts of sermons through mosques’ loudspeakers, and are to question the imam for “violating noise regulations.”