Sonu Nigam ‘Azaan’ tweet row: Saif Ali Khan reacts, says religion should be a private affair

Mumbai: It’s been a week since Sonu Nigam stirred a fresh controversy by expressing his views on the use of loudspeakers at places of worship through a series of tweets.

The singer has been criticised by a number of people and interestingly, he has also found support from many likeminded individuals who concur with his views. And now Saif Ali Khan has expressed his take on Sonu’s remarks.

Talking about the whole hullabaloo, Saif, during an interview with the Indian Express said, “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. 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’s the first thing you think of. There’s a bit of fear there. 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.”

On Monday last week, Sonu invited the wrath of a number of people on social media by tweeting, “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? (sic)”.