The public call to prayer functions as a symbol of Muslim communal unity.
Evidence
What is suggested by all these accounts is something that has been felt by travellers in many ages, that the public nature of the call to prayer makes it a great and solemn symbol of the unity of the Muslim community. It could not be distinguished from the prayer itself, and both together were the act of the whole quarter in which the mosque was situated. When that was in Christian territory it seemed to be a ‘reproach to the Christian faith’ and particularly intolerable where, as happened in Aragon, Muslims and Christians lived in the same quarter. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1160
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
Related
- Publicly audible prayer symbolises communal unity and provokes rivals when co-located (similarity 0.91)
- Some chroniclers dimly recognized Muslim prayer as a communal profession of faith (similarity 0.86)
- Public Islamic call to prayer felt intolerable to Christians in mixed quarters (similarity 0.85)