Controversial plans by an Amsterdam mosque to amplify Friday afternoon’s call to prayer went wrong in front of waiting journalists, when it transpired a key cable had been cut through.

Dozens of worshippers and reporters were outside the Blauwe Moskee at 13.00 when the loudspeakers were switched on but no sound came out.

The failure, was ‘very painful’, a mosque spokesman said. As yes it is unclear if the cable had been cut as an act of sabotage or was unintentional but the spokesman said they are assuming it was ‘a prank’.

The mosque’s board hopes that the call to prayer will help ‘normalise Islam in this beautiful world city of Amsterdam,’ they said on Facebook in October.

But the news immediately led to a storm of social media comment, with the anti-Islam PVV tabling parliamentary questions and even Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema saying she did not support the idea.

The mosque’s authorities plan to hold a new attempt to broadcast the call to prayer via speakers next week.