Muslims in the US: Should US Mosques have minarets with loudspeakers?

Polish or Punjabi?

The town of Hamtramck, Michigan has long been a magnet for immigrants. Most of the town’s residents come from Eastern Europe (mainly Poland), and two-thirds of the school children speak a language other than English at home. But recent immigration trends (e.g. Bengali, Yemeni, Bosnian) have resulted in five mosques in the town of 23,000, and a vigorous debate has ensued over a proposal to allow a noise exemption for the adhan (call to prayer) to be broadcast via loudspeakers from the mosque, much like the Sunday church bells that are more common here. “My only objection,” said Joanne Golen, 68, a lifelong resident of Hamtramck, “[is] that I have to listen to a God other than the one I believe in praised five times a day.”

But despite opposition, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the extension, which is modeled after similar waivers in nearby Dearborn, where the sound of the adhan at sunset is more common. “Church bells don’t turn Muslims or Jews into Christians,” argued an editorial in the Detroit Free Press in response to charges that allowing the call would unfairly elevate Islam over other religions. “There’s no reason to think the Muslim call to prayer will undermine other faiths.” City Council member Shahab Ahmed, who attends the al-Islah masjid where that asked for the noise ordinance amendment, said he was surprised the call to prayer turned into a big issue.

But the proposal had the strong support of City Council President Karen Majewski. “It’ll take people a while to get used to it,” she conceded. “But I think in the end they’ll get used to it, and it’ll become one of the lovely things about Hamtramck that we’re proud of.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.