Yemeni muezzin killed over loud call to prayer in Taiz

A Yemeni man in the embattled city of Taiz, southwestern Yemen, killed a local muezzin on Tuesday, supposedly for disturbing his sleep in the early hours of the morning.

Sources in Taiz told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that the man stabbed the muezzin of the Al-Rahma Mosque, Mahyoub Shamsan Al-Zaghrouri, 70, to death in the dispute.

The killer was identified by the Yemen Now news website as 35-year-old Mohammed Al-Zaidi.

The sources said that Al-Zaidi, who lived adjacent to the Al-Rahma Mosque, had tried to assault Al-Zaghrouri several times before. He brought a knife with him on the final time he confronted the elderly muezzin.

Muslims pray five times a day and the earliest prayer takes place just before dawn.

The sound of the call to prayer in the early hours of the morning is ubiquitous every day in nearly all Muslim countries, although the loudness of the call can vary.

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Yemeni security authorities announced they had managed to arrest Al-Zaidi following the incident, despite his attempts to barricade himself in his home. He had also tried to assault officers with a cleaver, they said.

Local sources said that the killing of a muezzin for loudly making the call to prayer was unprecedented, but that it followed a campaign on social media against such disturbances, particularly in the early hours of the morning.

Brutal fighting continues in Taiz between Yemen's Houthi rebels, who surround most of the city, and forces loyal to the internationally-recognised Yemeni government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.