A story in my local newspaper about a mosque a few blocks away from me has gotten some attention from the Islamophobic wingnuts. Apparently some of my neighbors are "irked" (or, as the nutjobs have it, tormented) by the call to prayer that is broadcast five times a day.
Personally, I like hearing it. It's at least as aesthetically pleasing as (and less frequent than) the bells on the Catholic church, and a lot better than the air raid siren that goes off every Friday to remind Orthodox Jews that Shabbat is approaching (as if they didn't know). More importantly, that's the kind of neighborhood I want to live in: one in which a diversity of cultures make their presence known. Knowing that some of my neighbors are taking time out of their day to pray (or are preparing to light candles) helps me feel connected to them. That's part of what makes it a neighborhood. It's not at all surprising to me that the people complaining about this issue hail from North Dakota, Indonesia, Australia and, um, East Squatanpoo.
Some of the people up in arms about this are the same ones who complain about Nativity scenes on public property, which is at least somewhat consistent (though the call is broadcast from private property) but many others are the same ones who become outraged about the War on Christmas � although I guess that's consistent in its own way. That latter group also links this to the encroachment of Islamist values on Western democratic ones. During the Muhammad cartoon controversy I wrote extensively about how I think this is a real phenomenon and one that must be resisted, but in this case it simply doesn't apply. There's a fundamental difference between religious believers wanting to express themselves and religious believers wanting to limit the expression of others. For years my neighborhood church had a huge sign that said, "Abortion stops a human heart," and while I often fantasized about getting a can of spray paint and adding, "Or your money back," [hat tip: Beth Sherman] it never seriously occurred to me that the church should be forced to remove its message � which was far less central to its mission than Muslim call to prayer.
I find it hard to believe that anyone who is bothered by this is reacting simply to the volume of the recording, rather than its message. It's less loud than car alarms and not much louder than those 25-cent kiddie rides that they have in front of some stores. It also lasts for under a minute. [Update: New York City "defines offensive sounds as noises made between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that are seven decibels above the surrounding sound of an area. Between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., the threshold would rise to 10 decibels above the ambient noise of an area � noise that is, say, louder than the din on an elevated subway platform or substantially louder than the sounds heard at any normal Manhattan intersection." There is no way the Adhan (which broadcasts only during the day) is that loud. If it repeated incessently, other regulations would cover it, which is why Bloomberg caused a mini scandal a few years back by attempting (unsuccessfully) to silence ice cream trucks. I was all for that, but most of the city -- Adhan opponents presumably among them -- lambasted the mayor for Hating Children].
But then, the mild complaints in the article of people who actually live here are nothing compared to the vitriol of those who have never been to Brooklyn, and probably never met a Muslim, in their lives. That's all anyone needs to know.
