Mich city may approve Muslim prayer call

[Sergeant Bob]

The City Council is expected today to pass a noise ordinance amendment permitting mosques to issue the traditional call to prayer over loud speakers.

Isn't that the government passing a law in support of a religion?
How many other religions will get amendments to city noise ordinances passed?
How about playing the Star Spangled Banner over loudspeakers so the entire city can hear it?
Where's the ACLU on this one? They'd be all over the Christians or the National Anthem I'd expect.

From a practical perspective, do you think you'd retain the goodwill of most US Moslem residents by suppressing their religious practices?

Not letting them blast their call to prayer over loudspeakers to the entire city can't really be construed as suppressing their religious practices anymore than not allowing church bells (which have been part of American culture since there was American culture) would be suppressing Christianity.

Also I believe this area in Michigan is predominatly inhabited by people of Arab/Muslim descent so really, what's the problem.

This area of Mich is the Detroit Metropolitan area. Not predominately Muslim. It has the largest Arab community in Mich. (in Dearborn) at 29,344 (per the 2000 census), or about 30 percent of the city's population.
Hamtramck is a city of 23,000. There are approximately 2158 Arab/Muslims living there, per the 2000 Census.

 

[Drjones]

DT:

When you can name 3,000 people who have been murdered by Christian fundamentalists within the last two years, then you can get on your high horse.

Until then, wake up and smell reality.

 

[escopeta]

Not the last 2 years, but

Bosnia comes to mind. Not that that will help stem the hate from pathetic bigots.

Personally I could do without the noise from either fairytale believer group, be it Christian bells or Islamic calls to prayer. But it is a free country, well sort of.

 

[Ex-Doc]

Give'm f'ing wireless wifi headphones....My peace and quiet in my home trumps their ability to generate noise.....otherwise I can create the "Church of the White Devil" and blast Rob Zombie 5 times a day for 45 secs at 120 db with loadspeakers on my roof. Could I qualify as a non-profit org too?

No, I'm not a bigot....just a realist...so lets get real.

 

[fix]

Bosnia comes to mind. Not that that will help stem the hate from pathetic bigots.

I think you should seek out more information regarding the conflict in the Balkans. You are misinformed.

 

[veloce851]

This is not a religious issue.. its a noise ordinance issue.

I don't see how anyone can equate the sound of an inanimate object to the sound of human voices making clear statements of faith?

The church bells are similar to hearing your neighbor’s wind chimes. As long as they don't disturb me they have the right to let them ring.

However if they were too loud any local sound ordinance has the authority to make them shut the chimes up.
Just as any public body would have the right to shut down the sound of church bells if enough people felt it was a disturbance of the peace.

The Muslim call to prayer is entirely different.
As it would be the same if churches 5 times daily chanted on loud speakers:
"Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior!" "Repent and save your soul before god."

I would be just as offended to hear this at the crack of dawn, even though I agree entirely with the statement.

The clear difference here is the fact that the call to prayer is a human voice engaging in a statement of belief.

Should I not be allowed to set up a PA system and blast The Savage Nation for everyone to hear?
Obviously frequency of the msg isn't at stake. Since church bells are not typically played 5 times a day and before 6am.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

I am sickened by the jingoistic, bigoted crap I am reading.

Ordinances that restrict religious expression are simply unconstitutional.

Whether restricting the use of loudspeakers for calls to prayer rises to the level of restricting religious expression is the only question.

It sounds like the council is taking the sensible step of modifying a potentially infringing ordinance. No big deal.

I am guessing that the city and the mosques will agree on a reasonable volume level. Then, functionally, it's just like church bells.

Everybody, we are not at war with Islam. To act as if we are only justifies the ridiculous rhetoric that Al Queda uses to justify their jihad.

Frankly, those who say we are at was with Islam and all muslims sound a lot like the Jihadists themselves.

This is a free country. You are free to have your racist, bigoted, jingoistic views. But know that most freedom-loving Americans know --or should know -- that freedom is for all Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs.

 

[longeyes]

Freedom is for those Americans who believe in freedom for themselves and others. It can be argued that absorbing people whose core beliefs are patently at odds with our deepest cultural and poltical views is an exercise in absurdity, not to mention self-mutilation.

 

[Barbara]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God and Allah are the same.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Only in the Koran/Quran.

My father's family are/were Catholic and refer to God as Allah. It's the word for God there.

staunch Catholics, “more Catholic than the Popeâ€, as a popular saying suggests. And yet, they actually pray to “Allahâ€, simply because this is the Arabic word for God.

I'm not saying that the prayers being called are to the Catholic God (who has no more relation to my own religious beliefs than the Muslim version does) but was just pointing out that Jews and Christians raised in Arabic-influenced countries are all likely to God by name Allah.

 

[DTLoken]

DrJones:

I don't know what reality you live in but it sure as hell isn't the same one as myself.

A few thousand bad apples in a sea of over a billion doesn't make all Muslims bad.

It's people like you with no tolerance for others different from yourself that have allowed things like the Japanese internment camps, lynching of blacks in the south and the holocaust to happen. All due to people unwilling to respect their fellow man (same thing with terrorists).

 

[DTLoken]

This is a free country. You are free to have your racist, bigoted, jingoistic views. But know that most freedom-loving Americans know --or should know -- that freedom is for all Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[HBK]

I can't believe people are using the word bigot to refer to people who see the danger of Islam and want to protect the US from it. It's not just the fundamentalist that is the problem. Look at the word, fundamental. According to webster, fundamental means the primary foundation. So if you want to look at what a religion is all about, you don't look at the offshoots of that religion. You look at the fundamentalists who practice the primary foundations of that religion. IF you read fix's post, and you still don't get it, then I can't make you understand it. I can't say it any better than he did.

 

[escopeta]

Really need some adjectives

How about pathetic, stupid, bigots who don't believe in freedom and are incapable of the use of logic?

 

[TheBluesMan]

And on that note... here comes the padlock patrol.

Lights out.