Michigan City OKs Amplified Islamic Prayers

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) – Residents of this once-predominantly Polish city on Tuesday upheld an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance, a victory for those in favor of allowing mosques to issue the call to prayer over loudspeakers.

The vote, which supporters of the prayer calls acknowledged was merely symbolic, was 1,462 to 1,200, or 55 percent to 45 percent.

The City Council unanimously passed the amendment to the noise ordinance in April after a mosque asked for permission to begin broadcasting the Arabic chants, traditionally issued five times a day.

The ordinance regulates the volume and timing of the amplified call. Without the law, city officials said there would be nothing to prohibit the broadcasting of the call to prayer itself.

The council’s action provoked an outcry among some longtime residents of Hamtramck, a city of 23,000 people that is surrounded by Detroit. In recent years, the city has seen a rapid influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and other countries.

The al-Islah mosque began the call to prayer in May. At least one other Hamtramck mosque has also begun the broadcasts via loudspeakers since then.

“Either way, the call is going to continue to happen,” City Council president Karen Majewski said before Tuesday’s vote.

The vote was nonetheless widely viewed as a choice between allowing the call to prayer or prohibiting it by repealing the amendment.

Robert Zwolak, one of the organizers of the petition drive that put the question the ballot, said he has no plans to fight the call to prayer in court. “The only other recourse we have is to change the political faces we have in City Hall right now,” he said.

Willy Jones, 67, who voted at a Catholic school across the street from the al-Islah mosque, questioned the assertion by Muslim leaders that the calls are no different from church bells.

“The church has been doing this for years. This is not calling people to prayer. It’s (giving) the time of day,” he said.

But Robert Wicke, 66, said prohibiting the call to prayer would deny Muslims a basic right.

“Religious liberty – they have the right to exercise it just like everybody else,” he said.

Lutful Choudhury, a Muslim who voted to keep the ordinance, said the initiative’s backers were blowing the issue out of proportion.

“They’re trying to make it a big deal, but it’s not,” he said. “If you go two or three blocks, you can’t even hear it.”

Read Another Article

Christian Leaders Said Arrested in China’s Xinjiang
Turmoil endangers Iraq’s Christians

Related News Articles Topic(s): Islam Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Islam Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog