American Atheists has posted a story about something I have been talking about that has been growing in the Chicagoland area and is becoming a real nuisance for some neighborhoods where mosques have been built. Mosques sending out calls to prayer across neighborhoods via loudspeakers and fill the air with wails to the masses to stop what they are doing and pray to the imaginary sky daddy of Islam. When I worked in Bridgeview,Il. only a few blocks from the Bridgeview Mosque, I heard this crap over loudspeakers five stinking times a day. This noise makes Christian churchbells seem like nothing. It’s hard to tune out, as it’s so loud the wailing sounds came right through closed windows and can be heard despite the hustle and bustle of office noises.
Here is the article describing what is happening because of these calls to prayers from loudpeakers of The Masjid Nur Al-Islam mosque at 21 Church Avenue in Kensington in NYC.
“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar,” the man sings in simple and repetitive musical notes. The message is in Arabic, and translates to, “God is the greatest.”
In Kensington, the call to prayer is amplified by a loud speaker perched atop the Masjid Nur Al-Islam mosque at 21 Church Avenue.
If you haven’t heard it before, it sounds just like this. Imagine trying to take an afternoon nap and being woken up by this:
Church bells are one thing, but chanting religious dogma over loudspeakers is another. Why is it ok for religious folks to be obnoxious and inconsiderate? They don't know when to pray? These "faithful" have to be reminded with bells and wailing alarms? Maybe someone should invent watches that are preset to go off and remind the holy it's time to pray, or maybe a little zapper they can wear that goes off at certain intervals to let them know. Why do the rest of us have to hear it?
5 comments:
My friend Sandra is a Christian who lives in Jakarta in Indonesia. She tells me that she gets woken up every morning by the Muslim call to prayer. Unfortunately, Indonesia is a Muslim majority nation, so it's not like she can complain to somebody about it.
I agree with you. How annoying. Surely if anough people complain?
I agree with you. How annoying. Surely if anough people complain?
l>t -- Nope, the police and city officials side with them. Read this story about what happened in a suburb of Detroit after people protested to the city council.
City officials finally allowed the mosque to do the call to prayer with loudspeakers between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
When discussing this at GifS, someone said You know what would be REALLY fucking funny? Get a copy of the chant, and play at all the wrong times… LOL!
tommy, Indonesia is also a secular government, however it is interesting to note how the religious majority usually gets their way.
As muslims grow in number in this country, I wonder if the future holds religious conflict like we have seen in so many other countries, including Northern Ireland, Iraq, etc.
Having been to the Middle East and having heard MANY different Imams call the faithful to prayer, this Imam is by far NOT the best I have heard, nor is he the worst (but he's close). His call does seem longer than the others I have heard.
But you haven't heard anything until you've heard each mosque within a rocks throwing distance of your sleeping quarters (3+), ALL call the faithful to prayer, seperately. Not in unison, and not even CLOSE in ability. THAT is something to truly dread at sunrise.
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