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=> US city shrugs off controversy, approves broadcast of Muslim chant
| US city shrugs off controversy, approves broadcast of Muslim chant |
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US city shrugs off controversy, approves broadcast of Muslim chant Wed Apr 28, 7:45 PM ET Add U.S. National - AFP to My Yahoo! HAMTRAMCK, United States (AFP) - A US city has voted to allow mosques to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, overruling protests that the chant is both a noise nuisance and offensive to non-Muslims. Hamtramck city council unanimously approved a controversial ordinance late Tuesday that authorizes mosques serving the city's growing Muslim community to broadcast the five-times daily chant. The regulations apply equally to church bells, but that was little comfort to opponents of the measure, who are now pledging to start a petition or go to the courts to get it overturned. Some of them, like Mike Lecznar, resent what they feel is a free pass for this Midwestern city's latest wave of immigrants, many of them Muslims from Bangladesh, Yemen and Bosnia. "Rather than emulate us, they want to take away from us," said the former Hamtramck resident who was one of hundreds of people who protested the decision in emails and letters. "They have no intention of melting in with us." George Guirguis, an Egyptian Coptic Christian, also expressed frustration with what he too felt was special treatment for Muslims. "I came here for religious freedom, too," said Guirguis. "I'm not against Muslims themselves, but Muslims see themselves as above the rules." Councilman Ahmed Shahab, a Bangladeshi, and the first Muslim elected to the body, had little patience for the complaints. "This is a multicultural community and everyone has the right to practise their religious rituals," he said. "We've given the same rights to everybody." The measure approved at a contentious meeting Tuesday provides for amplified broadcasts of the call to prayer or church bells between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. for periods of up to five minutes. The five-member council did its best to frame the issue as a civic one, but it quickly evolved into a highly-charged row that pitted the Polish Catholics who built this city against the more recent Muslim arrivals. One man at Tuesday's meeting showed up wearing a T-shirt that said "Allah is no God," while another member of the audience interrupted the council's deliberations to announce Muslims were praying in a basement room. "That's clearly not a separation of church and state!" he shouted. Others insisted it was simply a not-in-my-backyard issue. "It's about the noise," said Hamtramck inhabitant, Kathy Kristy. "I'm against ice cream trucks and gun shots as well." Homes in this city of 23,000, which is entirely surrounded by the gritty, sprawl of Detroit, sit on small lots, jammed up against each other. But many in the Muslim community were gratified by the council's decision, which they felt upheld America's traditions of inclusivity and multiculturalism. "It means a lot to me," Abdul Algazali, president of the Hamtramck-based American Yemeni Council told the Detroit Free Press. "It will show that everyone is treated equitably in the city." --------------------- |
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