Posted on 05/26/2004 4:36:12 AM PDT by ElisabethInCincy
Call to prayer, noise ordinance, to go before Hamtramck voters
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
BY CECIL ANGEL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER It's now up to voters.
The decision that has split Hamtramck -- City Council approval of a noise ordinance that would have allowed the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast on loudspeakers from the Al-Islah Islamic Center -- was affirmed by a 5-0 vote Tuesday night.
Because the council didn't rescind the ordinance, the issue will go before voters, as required by the city charter. Until then, the city must put the ordinance on hold because residents filed petitions to stop it from going into law today.
The issue could be on the ballot as early as July in a special election or in August, the next regular election.
Even though the ordinance is in limbo, the Al-Islah mosque's leaders said Tuesday night they will begin broadcasting the call to prayer in Arabic at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Masud Khan, secretary of the Al-Islah Islamic Center, said the mosque has a constitutional right to broadcast the call to prayer, adding that it is already being done in Detroit and Dearborn.
"If Detroit can do it, why can't we?" he asked. "We have religious freedom. We can express our religion."
The mosque wouldn't be breaking any laws if it does, said Councilman Shahab Ahmed. He said the Islamic center was just being a good neighbor when it asked for the city's permission in January to begin broadcasting. It won't be penalized for using its loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer with or without the ordinance, he said.
Mosques in Dearborn and Detroit broadcast on loudspeakers and have done so without seeking permission from those city governments.
"I'm very disappointed it's going to a ballot and further divide the community," Ahmed said.
For Robert Zwolak, organizer of the petition drive, the issue is about noise, not religion. He's confident the ballot issue to overturn the ordinance will easily be approved by Hamtramck voters.
"I personally don't think we need a campaign," he said. "The people are aware of this thing."
But City Council President Karen Majewski said the irony of the petition drive is that it strips city control over the frequency and volume of the call-to-prayer broadcasts.
"The petition actually rescinds whatever control we might have had," Majewski said. "I don't see the logic in that."
Calls to prayer occur five times a day and last about two minutes. Officials at the Al-Islah Islamic Center say when they begin broadcasting, they will not do so in the early morning or late at night so no one will be disturbed.
Muslims have been in Hamtramck for decades, but a wave of immigration from Bangladesh, Yemen, Bosnia and other countries with large Muslim populations have boosted their numbers and political clout in the city.
The city has struggled with its changing demographics and religious and ethnic differences.
"Fear of change and fear of the unknown," are the reasons many residents signed the petitions against the call to prayer, said Councilman Rob Cedar. "I voted for this because I thought it was the right thing to do."
How about bells, just ring the bells...
We certainly don't have to put up with their brand of lunacy. For the time being this is still a land where people can't mutilate or murder others over religious convictions, nor escape the consequences of such vile actions by hiding behind the pretexts of their faith.
One more time (and this is my personal perception): The best Muslims are bad people. Good people are bad Muslims. If you're a Muslim compare your faith to all others and ask yourself why changing consigns you to death. Such a demand from a deity indicates that the object of your worhsip is insecure and weak.
To me, a true god would be secure in his place, encourage his followers to expand their knowledge of his creation while adhering to the high principles of love.
Inversely, a false god would take the easier path of appealing to the worst aspects of human nature by promoting irrational intolerance, paranoiac distrust and hatred toward convenient scapegoats (the Jews, America, etc.)
Islam is inherently incompatible with America. Adherents who are here need to migrate to the countries that kowtow to it. Those who remain should accept the fact that they are a security risk and will be treated as such (as they maintain that Islamic law and fatwas take precedence over that of the countries they reside in). Be real or be gone.
What would help with the syncronized music,is the help from
a local radio station. If a radio station would help in the effort, it would be easy for everybody in the "area" to play the same song,at the same time, no matter WHERE you are, home,outside in your yard , walking with your "boom-box",or listening in your automobile, even while you and say 20-30 of your closest friends (who maybe are into "car audio" )are leisurely enjoying a nice slow summer drive together artound town.
Maybe even the radio station does "remotes" from time to time, (or as I have done in my moble DJ biz....run a radio signal thru my DJ equipment.....)
It could be done almost on the "sly" if the radio DJ's take requests. Some of the musical suggestions in this thread would be great, and the variety would give it more "validity"......just have the DJ's time it with the "call to murder".
montag813, for your broadcast "request", see if the station could sell you a "block" of 15 second adds(it would be less expensive)and see if maybe at least once-twice or more a day,the station could play them right BEFORE the chosen musical request.Make them catchy,to the point, and make up or find a sponsor to tag the add with to make it sound "legit".
If the "call to murder" is at the top of the hour,......
BINGO!! Everybody who isn't going to answer the CTM, could be let in on the "project", and I'm sure once the word spread, the co-ordinated music could really help in the effort to shut the mudlum's speakers up, along with bringing the non-mudlum people in the community,alot closer together by working with one another towards a common goal.
Give it some thought.....does anyone know a radio station in that area that might want to help?? IMHO, a radio station that takes requests and plays them, and a community that just about all the non-mudlum community likes to listen to,NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE.....gee ...sounds innocent to me , and would have a hard time being proved as any kind of "hate crime activity" if it was done "grass-roots"...
....PS...it's gonna take a "leader" to start it....but once you can get a radio station to "play along".....the rest will be easy by word of mouth.....
"Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!"
"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come."
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
When the Muslims population grows sufficiently to have any political clout, I expect to soon afterwards hear cries to "Ban assault bacon".
The call to Rock n Roll? That's freedom of speech and religion as well, lol.
Between the gays and the muslims the U.S. has become a nest for every unclean bird.
Would it have to be synchronized? What if everyone just played loudly whatever they wished or happened to have on hand? One loudspeaker could be blaring pig grunts, several playing loud metal rock, there could be christian music playing, ethnic music? Or someone else shouting throught their loudspeaker some Evangelical callings?
It could be a good time to show a lot of multiculturalism --- music diversity. Bagpipes and drums, some loud Polish polka music --- "roll out the barrel", get some loud cumbia music blaring toward the mosques, African drums --- the politically correct politicians couldn't really criticize that.
:^O
Of course they couldn't criticize it. It would be trampling on their sacred "diversity"!
Or play Ahab the Arab very loudly on loudspeakers everytime the noises from the mosques starts up. The Arab government is who builds the mosques here in the USA anyhow -- so they might like an Arab song.
Playing what they don't like would be more effective though.
I don't think they'd really like Ahab the Arab too much.
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