Amidst heated debate over the project of the Ministry of

Awqāf

[Endowments] to unify the azān [call to prayer] in Greater Cairo mosques,

Rose al-Yousuf

claims that it has managed to obtain a copy of a letter sent by the Saqr Factory for

Developed Industries to

the under-secretary of the Ministry of Awqāf [Endowments], Engineer Muhammad

Hāshim

‘Abd al-Khāliq, who is also the supervisor of the project. The letter reveals that

the

minister of awqāf, Dr. Mahmoud Hamdī Zaqzouq has asked the authorities concerned to

suspend

plans to collect samples of voices, from which well-known prayer callers would have been selected to record

tapes of the azān.