I was in Iraq for 2 years and heard a lot of calls to prayer. It’s pretty cool at first, kind of an exotic and haunting tune if you’re not used to it. Then you hate it. I cursed that muzzein several times every day for months. Then you get used to it and learn to ignore it. If there were a big enough Muslim population in my town that this was a realistic option, I’d vote to allow it. It’s no different than church bells in my opinion.
Luckily, this thread is not in any way at all about asking whether a Muslim-majority neighborhood should exist in America.
Ain’t never any religion powerful enough to wipe out a whole day celebrating doughnuts!
My answer to the question is, poorly. STFU before 9 am.
Maybe they use an app.
The one in Dubai is kind of pretty, though I wouldn’t really want to hear it first thing in the morning. The one in **WhyNot’s **link; hell no. I would be majorly pissed if that was being inflicted upon me.
Not directly. But the azhan is a feature of daily life in most Muslim communities worldwide. To suggest that it maybe does not have a place in an American neighborhood, even in a few places, is to imply that, if we welcome Muslims at all, it is only to the extent that they remain minorities, and not too expressive.
For example. I like Green Bean and hope she will not take it as any kind of personal slight that I point to her very mild remark upthread.
I’m sure no harm is meant, but I catch a whiff of nativism. We do have church bells and the like. More importantly–is there something wrong with a new, imported tradition becoming part of the American fabric in a few places? There is no conflict with core principles here.
I guess I never thought of this before, but devout Muslims can’t sleep in?
Church bells have no meaning, that wailing is obnoxious as hell.
At least it wouldn’t be in English - so I don’t have to listen to the words. If I want to hear prayers I’ll go to church.
People have the right to worship how they want, they don’t have to right to inflict their prayers on me.
Providing they abide by local noise statutes, I don’t see a problem.
My folks’ old church used to ring the bells on the hour, but the neighbors complained. I can’t recall if they stopped altogether, or just rang them between 9am and 6pm.
What’s the harm? I may even take the occasion to pray myself.
Regards,
Shodan
That would be damn annoying. I would definitely be calling the bylaw officers if that happened too early in the morning. Call me crazy but ambulance sirens and snowplows are more forgivable than someone broadcasting on a loudspeaker to remember to be obedient to God.
Btw, if you watch WhyNot’s youtube link, it’s over 2 minutes long not 60-90 seconds.
As long as you’re not doing it over a loudspeaker at 6am.
I wonder what people would say if the Baptist Church down the road started broadcasting The Lord’s Prayer at 6am. Or the Catholic Church started broadcasting Gregorian Chants at 6am. I like Gregorian Chants but I don’t want to hear them at 6am, I don’t want to hear them at all unless I choose to.
A lot of life’s noises can’t be helped. Traffic makes noise, machinery makes noise, life makes noise. To purposely inflict noise on people who don’t want to hear it is rude, and not much different than the asshole who revs up his motorcycle at 6am (I’m sure he finds the noise pleasing) or the teen who is blasting his car stereo with the windows rolled down.
They aren’t supposed to.
They aren’t supposed to cheat their fast during Ramadan, either, but I’ve yet to meet a Muslim who didn’t admit to doing it now and again. Muslims aren’t perfect.
There may also be allowable exceptions for missing a prayer, just as there are for not keeping the Ramadan fast (the sick, travelers, people whose health would be endangered by foregoing food and water for that period of time, and so forth). Non-Muslims aren’t always aware that these allowable exceptions exist.
Well, no meaning to those who don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’m not clear what is meant by “handle” in the OP. Odds are I’d be despondent as hell about hearing a call to prayer at any time of day because it would mean “publicly-demonstrated devotion” religion is continuing to spread through society like poison, discouraging the non/quietly-devout from remaining so and emboldening their persecution. I wouldn’t DO anything about it because I wouldn’t trust the publicly devout to treat fairly with someone who is not a cult member. As for the timing of the noise, I wouldn’t care because I’m usually awake by 4:00 AM anyway. But fair’s fair–I suppose I could crank Shippin’ Up To Boston at the same time to call the family to [del]breakfast[/del] communal food worship. Daily sacrament of Guinness & mojo taters sounds pretty good, actually.
Exactly. I knew a woman who lived next to a CSX (railroad) switching yard. She got to where she couldn’t sleep if she didn’t hear the shipping containers and cars clanging around.
I would probably handle it just as well as they would handle me blasting slayer at 3 am.
Can’t they just have an app that does their praying for them?
Let’s see: You would expect them to be upset at you for your violating the noise ordinance at 3 a.m.; therefore, you also expect to be upset at them for not violating the noise ordinance. “Does that about sum it up?”
What does violation of noise ordinance have to do with it? So the only things that one can find annoying are those which are illegal (which, where I live, blasting anything into the airwaves would be a violation)? I hear someone’s annoying racket at an inappropriate hour and I’m going to be upset, be it 3 AM or 6 AM. What’s so hard to understand about that?:dubious:
Because the law expresses the will of the majority as to what constitutes an annoying racket and what is an appropriate hour.
Be upset if you like. Just don’t expect anything to be done about it.
Regards,
Shodan