The Muslim call to prayer will ring out more freely in New York City under guidelines announced Tuesday by Mayor Eric Adams, which he said should foster a spirit of inclusivity.
Under the new rules, Adams said, mosques will not need a special permit to publicly broadcast the Islamic call to prayer, or adhan, on Fridays and at sundown during the holy month of Ramadan. Friday is the traditional Islamic holy day, and Muslims break their fast at sunset during Ramadan.
The police department’s community affairs bureau will work with mosques to communicate the new guidelines and ensure that devices used to broadcast the adhan are set to appropriate decibel levels, Adams said. Houses of worship can broadcast up to 10 decibels over the ambient sound level, the mayor’s office said.
I lived right next to a Mosque in Kensington (that opened up without a proper permit in a residential zone a year after I purchased my property). They used to broadcast their prayers at ungodly volume. It was loud as hell, would cut through my headphones and ruin any ability I had to do anything, even think straight. I made numerous noise complaints but nothing was ever done by the NYPD. Got so bad that I finally sold the place and moved somewhere dominated by orthodox Jewry just because I knew they’d serve as a bulwark against me ever having to hear any prayers again.
I’m sure that the people who think this is a good idea view it as a simple matter of religious freedom. It is not. My experience was one of having someone else’s religion thrust upon me. Church bells are annoying and loud, but they do not contain actual religiosity. I was always taught that my rights ended when I infringe upon someone else’s rights. Broadcasting prayers so loud it can be heard above the ambient noise in NYC is trampling on my rights to exist free of religion.
Believe whatever you want, but keep it to yourself. I feel awful for everyone who lives near a mosque in NYC.
That’s exactly what this is. If someone is part of the religion, they either already know what time it is or have set up their own alarm to notify them. The only reason to blast this across the neighbourhood is to force everyone to hear it.
Freedom of religion is freedom from religion.
Have you not heard the shabbat siren in Brooklyn ran by orthodox Jews and also run every Friday? They are literal air raid sirens in Williamsburg. https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2014/brooklyns-weekly-shabbos-air-raid-siren
I have, on occasion, heard the siren in Williamsburg. But a siren is very different from having to hear an entire Friday service blasting into my home. Shabbat sirens and church bells suck, but they are only symbolically religious. Mosques are broadcasting their literal prayers. I felt prayed upon. Puns aside, we’re not even talking about the public square, where people have differing opinions on the appropriateness of religious ideas/imagery. This is about a person in their private residence or private business being subjected to someone else’s religion in full.
A Google search shows that the Adhan isn’t a prayer.
God is the greatest. X4 There is No God but God. X2 Mohammad is the apostle of God. X2 Hurry to the prayer. X2 Hurry to the success. X2 God is the greatest. X2
Duration depends on the person reciting it.
Yeah, these are annoying as fuck and should not be exempt from noise ordinances. This isn’t 1900, they all have phones they can get a notification if they really don’t know what day it is.
When you said Kensington I thought you were a posh cunt called Tarquin but no, apparently not