RIYADH: A Saudi-based Muslim clerics’ organization has banned the use of Quranic verses as mobile phone ringtones after a six-day meeting in the holy city of Mecca, a statement said on Thursday.
“It is forbidden to use verses of the Quran as mobile telephone ringtones because any such use would damage the Quran by their abrupt interruption of the psalm verses or by sounding in inappropriate places, said the fatwa, or religious edict, issued by the Islamic Jurisprudence Council.
Around 70 Muslim clerics attended the meeting in Mecca chaired by Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abdelaziz Al-Sheikh, and held under the auspices of the Muslim World League.
The Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat reported that there had been “a turbulent debate at the meeting on the ringtone issue.
In recent years many clerics, especially from Egypt, have denounced the use of Quranic verses in mobile telephony, believing it to be a frivolity that impinges on the sacred character of the Muslim holy book.
Advertising for downloading verses from the Quran has also come under fire.
