Call to Prayer in Michigan

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Voters in Hamtramck Michigan have upheld an ordinance allowing amplified broadcasts of the Islamic call to prayer: Mich. City OKs Amplified Islamic Prayers.

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. - 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.

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Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
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