Almost a year after popular Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam triggered a controversy by raising objection on use of loudspeakers at mosques and other religious places, noted lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar has now come out in support of the singer.
Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Javed Akhtar on Wednesday said that loud speakers should not be used by mosques and for that matter by any place of worship in residential areas.
He tweeted, “This is to put on record that I totally agree with all those including Sonu Nigam who want that Loud speakers should not be used by the mosques and for that matter by any place of worship in residential areas.”
The tweet by the lyricist came on a day when the Mumbai Police initiated move to increase the security cover of Sonu Nigam after agencies feared death threat to the singer.
The Maharashtra State Intelligence Department issued an advisory to the Mumbai Police citing security threat to Sonu Nigam and two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. The advisory said that the singer can be attacked by terrorists at a public place or during some film promotion. Reports said that the death threat for Sonu Nigam and BJP leaders Ram Kadam and Ashish Shelar were by a terror group operating from Pakistan.
Nigam had triggered a huge controversy almost a year back with a series of tweets about azan sound coming from the loudspeaker of a mosque near his home. He had called it “forced religiousness”.
On April 16, he tweeted, “God bless everyone. I'm not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India.”
"And by the way Mohammed did not have electricity when he made Islam. Why do I have to have this cacophony after Edison? I don't believe in any temple or Gurudwara using electricity to wake up people who don't follow the religion. Why then? Honest? True?. Gundagardi hai bus."
Sonu Nigam had even shaved off his head in defiance of a 'fatwa' issued by Syed Sha Atef Ali Al Quaderi of the West Bengal Minority Council, who had offered to pay Rs 10 lakh as a reward to have the singer go bald and garland him with old shoes.
