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."
Bttt!
Apparently it started:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/3358067/detail.html
Thanks!!
http://www.freep.com/news/religion/call28_20040528.htm Here's a story I found with alot more detail.
Then the local immams will push for "sharia law zones," as they are doing today in Canada. Strictly on a voluntary basis, ya know. You know how Muslim wives "volunteer," right?
ALLAHU AKBAR = THE MUSLIM CALL TO MURDER. Just ask Nick Berg or Danny Pearl.
This is all part of the jihad they have declared against us.
Beat me to it ;^ )
This is why we've got to be more selective with our immigrants --- these people have no belief at all in freedom of religion, you can see when they get their sharia laws set up that they never allow for freedom of religion. It's like some big laugh they're having at us --- but at the same time they do intend to take this country over. When they finally get sharia law in place --- there will be no more churches.
They can if we let them --- why on earth is our government allowing so many to immigrate here like this??? Send them back to their Islamic paradises --- we definitely don't need this kind of immigrant. And if they can blast their crap over loudspeakers, it seems Americans have the same right to blast whatever we want over loudspeakers right back at them. I'd be for really loud Metallica music. But good Christian music would be fine also.
Perhaps the good citizens could get a benefit concert going right there to show their appreciation. With any luck some of the puppets might even renounce the Fallen One to follow the way and the light.
Or how about "Seek and Destroy".
We are scanning the scene
in the city tonight
We are looking for you
to start up a fight
There is an evil feeling
in our brains
But it is nothing new
you know it drives us insane
You think that might scare them a bit?
Running,
On our way
Hiding,
You will pay
Dying,
One thousand deaths ....
Searching,
Seek and Destroy ....
There is no escape
and that is for sure
This is the end we won't take any more
Say goodbye
to the world you live in
You have always been taking
but now you're giving
Our brains are on fire
with the feeling to kill
And it will not go away
until our dreams are fulfilled
There is only one thing
on our minds
Don't try running away
`cause you're the one we will find
Can't forget "Don't Tread on Me".
Don't Tread On Me
Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
never begins it, never, but once engaged...
never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage
don't tread on me
so be it
threaten no more
to secure peace is to prepare for war
so be it
settle the score
touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...
don't tread on me
love it or live it, she with the deadly bite
quick is the blue tongue, forked as lighting strike
shining with brightness, always on surveillance
the eyes, they never close, emblem of vigilance
don't tread on me
so be it
threaten no more
to secure peace is to prepare for war
so be it
settle the score
touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...
don't tread on me
so be it
threaten no more
to secure peace is to prepare for war
liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
once you provoke her, rattling on her tail
so be it
threaten no more
to secure peace is to prepare for war
so be it
settle the score
touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...
don't tread on me
Uh, where's the ACLU on all of this?
About time for the call to prayer to be broadcast, the natives should drive around the neighborhood with their windows down and their sterios turned up to the max.
People have a right to freedom of expression too.
The Islamic call to prayer is performed five times a day: at dawn, noon, late afternoon, dusk and evening (the exact times can vary). Across most of the United States, the call is done inside the mosque; in much of the rest of the world, it is done outside the mosque, often through loud speakers.
English translation of the Call to Worship:
"God is great" (four times);
"I testify there is no other God but God" (twice);
"I testify Muhammad is the messenger of God" (twice);
"Come and pray" (twice);
"Come and flourish" (twice);
"God is great "(twice);
"There is no God but God" (once).
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