How would you handle daily calls to prayer starting at 6 am?

In My Humble Opinion
21

This is the actual call to prayer in the city mentioned. It’s not nearly as soothing as the Dubai Mall one. It’s tinny and harsh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oksdM00OSFo

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I’d not be happy. It’s way too long, *way *too early, and way too hard to ignore for me, because it sounds like a person in distress. Even the ambulances that are constantly going down my block (there’s a Senior building and a nursing home half a block from my house) try very hard not to use their sirens that early, which I appreciate.

But the volume level would definitely influence my feelings. If I can close my windows and it’s not really that audible, fine. I certainly think they should be subject to the local sound ordinance, if there is one.

22

It can’t possibly be as annoying as the Methodist church I used to live across the street from. It had loud synthesized bells chiming every 15 minutes all day long. I’m not sure how early in the morning it started; the worst thing about it was that it would play random songs – songs that were not meant to be played on bells – and it often sounded as if the playback speed was shifting a little, causing the pitches to bend randomly. It was reminiscent of an ice cream truck.

23

Monotheistic religions love to shove their faith down your throat. After all,they have got the only access to the one true god. I will listen to complaints about Muslim call to prayer once the US gets rid of all the officially sanctioned Christian beliefs. Maybe we could start with blue laws. That would be a kick in the nuts to both Baptists and Muslims. But until the fundamentalist Christians back off from dictating the behavior of people who do not belong to their church, I will have a hard time getting my panties in a wad over Muslims bothering folks.

24

So because there are too many intrusions, we should have more? That makes no sense.

25

Could somebody explain why it’s necessary to have a publically broadcast call to prayer?

I know Muslims can do their 5-times-daily prayers wherever they are, so it’s not necessary to gettin’ the prayin’ done. If it’s traditional, that’s cool, but in the U.S. It’s NOT traditional to have a public wake-up call. Could a compromise be reached by silencing that first one and doing the other 4?

I wonder it there’s a call to prayer app. There should be!
ETA: yep, there are numerous call to prayer apps with lots of nifty features.

26

Maybe the 6 am “wake up call” is one way to drive the infidels out of the area?

27

I wonder if they could set up a low-power radio station instead of using speakers. Are you allowed to have an AM or FM station that has dead air for most of the day?

28

Sixty to ninety seconds seems like a reasonable time limit, the one in Hamtramck (at least the one in the linked video) plays for almost three minutes.

I don’t really see it as any different than church bells. I would be annoyed at first, but I get used to things pretty quickly in my sleep.

29

Why 6 am? You determine the time for prayer by the dawn, as determined by light level not the clock. The time for morning prayer changes with the seasons. Fajr [between dawn and sunrise] today was 8 minutes ago, sunrise is in about an hour. I have been up since 5 am so the call to prayer wouldn’t bother me at all.

And having lived by a train crossing, and in a town with assorted churches you learn to ignore repetitive sounds easily.

30

I used to live next to a Roman Catholic church in Germany. They rang their bells every day. It didn’t thrill me, nor did it bother me to the extent where I wanted to ban the bell ringing.

31

So you must think all those churches banging all those bells just started doing that, what, a week or so ago?

32

One piece of the answer (not necessarily the whole story): Because in the old days, not everyone was literate/knew the times for prayer (which as noted, does change with the changing times of sunrise/sunset), and not everyone had a watch. Of such practical considerations, traditions can be born. Aside from this, some mosques (in Egypt and Indonesia - no idea about other places) broadcast community news. I learned the details of neighbors who died by listening closely to occasional announcements from a nearby mosque at my old house.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. The call to prayer tells people it is time to pray. It’s not so that people can play huckle-buckle-beanstalk-find-the-nearest-mosque by putting on a blindfold and following their ears until they arrive at a masjid. In any case, on Fridays men are supposed to go to a masjid if possible, not just pray “wherever they are,” so your statement doesn’t reflect a particularly insightful view of Islam.

When I bought my last couple of cell phones in Indonesia, the feature was already installed - I had to disable it!

I’ve lived in Islamic countries most of my adult life - more than 15 in Indonesia, a country which is notorious for going wild with masjid loudspeakers. A typical story that has achieved urban legend status here and which may actually occasionally even be true goes like this: Foreigner moves near mosque. Loudspeaker blares VERY VERY LOUD call to prayer in the general direction of foreigner’s house.

Foreigner consults with friends and asks the culturally appropriate way to deal with this annoyance. Having been informed, he pays a visit to the mosque, explains his concern, and makes a donation.

Hallelujah, so to speak - the volume is turned down and the direction of the loudspeakers adjusted. But eventually, the volume goes up again, and the direction of the loudspeakers returns to zero in on the foreigner’s house … lather, rinse, repeat.

The other issue is that mosques compete - we’ve lived smack in the middle between two mosques that both seemed to be trying to outdo each other, noise-wise. That did occasionally get to be annoying.

But still, on the whole it isn’t a problem. Like others have said, it’s analogous to a train going by; you get used to it.

The argument that it shouldn’t be allowed because “it’s not traditional” concerns me. As a reason for stifling the free expression of culture and/or belief, it is pretty weak. Noise ordinances should do the trick, surely. Or we just as easily could have said “it’s not traditional” that women in the US should be allowed to vote, eh?

33

^ This.

You get used to it. Christian church bells can be as annoying as crap, too, but some folks get testy when you mention that because we’re supposed to be a “Christian nation” (never mind the First Amendment and the fact there have always been non-Christians in North America). Ditto for train whistles, city street noises, rural animal noises in the night, and so forth. Once your brain gets used to something occurring it registers it as business as usual, everything is normal, and stops bothering to wake you up.

This can also result in a LACK of an accustomed noise disrupting your sleep - your brain becomes alarmed because something that normally happens doesn’t happen. If you’ve ever woken up during a power failure and don’t know why it could well be that all the normal noises and distractions of your household - furnace switching on and off, refrigerator motor noises, the small ambient light of nightlights, light from streetlights outside, etc. - has ceased and your brain is aware that Things Are Not Normal and wakes you up just in case the changes herald danger.

34

I used to live next to a fire station. I’m sure I could get used to calls for prayer.

35

My little town used to have 4 whistles: 7am, 12, 1pm and 6 pm (used to be a sawmill here). Someone just complained about the 2 remaining whistles (Noon and 6pm) because she thought they could scare the senior citizens into a heart attack. She’s new to the community.

When we lived along the Mississippi River we got so used to hearing the barges, the trains and city traffic that when we moved out here to the sticks I had to run a fan just so Mistermage could sleep. A car or semi driving by would wake him up because it’s just so quiet out here. Then you started hearing the night noises that can be surprisingly loud like Hoot owls, “horny time” for cows and the sound of propane corn/soybean dryers. Oh, and the trains that “go by” 7 miles away.

It all fades into the background over time.

36

I’m awake before six a.m. every day so it wouldn’t bother me personally.

37

First question: How do you know they’re “trying very hard not to use their sirens”?

Second question: What does that even mean?

38

I’ve lived near plenty of mosques, you get used to it just like other city noises.

39

First Methodist in downtown Houston has some lovely bells. Chimes on every quarter hour & occasional hymns. And they ring changes, too. We don’t have many people living downtown now, but I wouldn’t mind being close to those bells. (The synthesized bells–nope.)

I’d get used to calls to prayer. I’m pretty sure a mosque in a residential area would be discreet–we have some already & I haven’t heard any complaints. (Hey,there’s an app!)

My quiet residential neighborhood near downtown has a low constant roar in the distance–I-10, linking the coasts. When one of our floods shuts down the low lying bits, the silence is noticeable…

40

Because I’m a nurse and I talk to paramedics. And it means that they run silent unless some car or pedestrian is doing something stupid in front of them and they have no choice but to turn on the sirens. They take no such precautions from about 9a-9p, but outside those hours, they actually do try not to be jerks.