Hamtramck Residents To Hear Prayer Broadcasts(poll to FReep)

ClickonDetroit News ^ | April 21/22, 2004 | Staff

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Issue Sparks Heated Debate Among Residents

POSTED: 9:13 am EDT April 21, 2004/ UPDATED: 9:21 am EDT April 22, 2004

Hamtramck residents will soon be hearing a Muslim call to prayer five times a day following a unanimous vote by the City Council Tuesday night.

The issue of sending out the prayer on a loudspeaker in the city sparked a heated debate among residents.

"If you guys think about it, the Muslim call to prayer is actually a beautiful thing," an unidentified man who supported the issue said during the City Council meeting.

Some residents are opposed to the call to prayer, saying it gives state sponsorship of a religion and it lifts Islam above all other religions in Hamtramck, Local 4 reported.

"I would say that is a distortion," Hamtramck City Councilwoman Karen Majewski said. "We worked very hard to craft this ordinance in such a way that it would cover all means of religious expression."

Resident Maria Radtke called it "one big mess."

"There'll be no peace as far as I'm concerned," Radtke said.

Resident Bob Golen also opposes the call to prayer. He said he is a Christian and does not believe in the tenets of the Muslim faith.

Majewski said the ordinance will allow the city "a way to deal with all religions, not simply the Muslim call to prayer."

The councilwoman also said the amendment to the noise ordinance passed by the City Council "gives us the flexibility to adjust the number of speakers, the direction of the speakers, the level of loudness. So that will all depend on the community response, on the particular neighborhood that the mosque may be in, because we have several mosques, and the particularities of each case."

City Council members may have voted to allow the daily prayer, but they have not yet set a decibel level for the mosques. The council will make the decision at a meeting next week.

The calls are expected to begin in May with broadcasts between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

As for complaints of the noise pollution created by the call to prayer, Majewski said there are other noise issues because Hamtramck is an urban city.

"We have a lot of noise on our streets," Majewski said.

She said there is flexibility within the ordinance to deal with all of the noise problems such as cars, trains and noisy neighbors.

"This ordinance gives us a way, a mechanism, by which to deal with these complaints," Majewski said.

SURVEY
The Hamtramck City Council voted unanimously to allow a Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast from a loudspeaker five times a day. Do you agree with the decision to allow it?

Yes. The prayer will bring peace to the community.

No. It is a noise disturbance for those who practice other religions.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Just unbelievable.

[Iron Matron]

Are arabs too stupid to set an alarm on thier wristwatch?

Must be.

Non-Muslims need to take care of this however they can.

[smith288]

Why dont they just have a radio station that does the calling?

Islam's call to prayer will remind me of the October suprise Bush gave Saddam... Sitting an watching the Baghdad cam always seem to be calling to prayer then BOOM

[muawiyah]

Last time Hamtramck made it big time in the news they were trying to keep African-Americans from living in the town, and out of employment on the fire-department (which had the highest paid firefighters in North America).

That was several decades ago.

One imagines they welcomed Kurds and Arabs into their town with "relief" that "they aren't Negroes"!

I live within the sound of 3 mosques and a Methodist church with huge bells.

They all get drowned out by Interstate 95~

We'd much prefer the calls to prayer or the bells if we could just get that highway shut down. Will you help us?

[PeaceBeWithYou]

You could ask for a wall, but eventually you'd get an increase in taxes, and I doubt you would hear the bells/CTPs

You could also relocate, they can move your house just about anywhere with moving technology these days.

Failing that, you could go record the bells/CTPs and play them back in your house loud enough to cover the highway noises.

Does that help?

[RightWingAtheist]

So far, it's 573 (11%) in favor, and 4507 (89%) against. Well done, FReepers.

[Redbob]

Just a hunch here, but wasn't that Interstate already there when you moved in?

[muawiyah]

This is in Springfield VA. We already have a wall. Actually, we have a myriad of walls in this area, and I'm less than a mile from a subway station which means my property keeps on earning a net increase in value of $10,000 per month.

Maybe I could relocate and rent the place out to someone who doesn't care.

[Redbob]

Freeped!
89% "No. It is a noise disturbance "

[CJ Wolf]

Those aren't walls, they are defensive barriers in case of invasion.

[muawiyah]

BTW, guys, almost all those guys living in Hamtramck are hard-core union Democrats.

If they knew FR folks were siding with them, they'd be begging those Moslems to build even more minarets and do 24/7 calls to prayer.

[45Auto]

I wonder where the hypocrites from the ACLU are? Shouldn't they be filing a lawsuit claiming this city ordinance is unconstitutional based on "separation of church and state"? Oh, I guess its only one certain religion they don't like......liberals are going to go nuts if the rag-heads seize power and force them all to come to prayer five times a day....How many Muslims are on the city council, anyway?

[lilylangtree]

Wimps! Refuse to stand up to the islamics demands. Noise pollution.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Majewski said the ordinance will allow the city "a way to deal with all religions, not simply the Muslim call to prayer."

Control, it's always about control.

[hellinahandcart]

I don't think so. If they do an actual call to prayer, it's not loud enough to carry 13 blocks over to me...

They've got something like a news ticker out front, that has the words traveling across it. I think it's the Five Pillars of Islam and some other stuff. I stood there and watched for a while on day, to see if "Death to all Infidels" ever ran by...

[telebob]

"If you guys think about it, the Muslim call to prayer is actually a beautiful thing..."

Pass the kool aid.

[wattsup]

Turn up The Christian Church bells.

[righteousindignation]

Guess What?! I was browsing for news on Hamtramck and found out the City Council also has voted against what they term "A unilatal, unprovoked war against Iraq"!!!

[righteousindignation]

Unilateral not 'unilatal'! sorry for mistake, need to slow down but this is so horrifying a development for America as we knew it was founded to be.