Noise Pollution Or?

Daniel Medley, over at Lobowalk brings to my attention a story out of Hamatrack, Michigan regarding Muslim calls to prayer.  I was aware that the Muslims had requested permission to broadcast the five times daily call to prayer, over loud speakers, and now the Hamatrack city council has approved the request.  Daniel, like myself, doesn’t really want to have to hear this five times per day.  And the writer of the linked article definitely doesn’t want to hear the Muslim call to obesiance five times per day.  But think about this.  In my neck of the woods, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I can hear church bells peeling, or sacred music, twice per day emanating from various steeples.  Is there any difference?  To the best of my knowledge, the churches from which these sounds waft across the city, never asked permission.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/26 at 07:54 AM

  1. John, I’ve heard this analogy before and, to me, it is not even the same. Church bells are just that; bells. The Muslim prayer call is a proselytizing call to prayer telling us how great God is. Combine this with the fact that we are currently at war with elements of radical Islam (regardless of what our pc politicians tell us) and I think it is completely different.

    I have similar feelings towards religious music emanating from steeples as well but, admittedly, I’m less offended by it than hearing the prayer call of a religion that I feel represents some of the very worse that any religion has to offer. Yeah, yeah, maybe I’m bigoted but until Islam pulls itself from the gutter of persecution of women, Jews, and non-believers and learns to play nice with the rest of the world I feel that such bigotry is warranted. I’d feel the same towards the Catholic Church if, say, the Spanish Inquisition was still running rampant in its quest for conversos under the leader ship of some clown like Torquemada.

    Regards.

    Posted by Daniel Medley  on  04/26  at  10:56 AM

  2. Daniel -

    I don’t think you’re bigoted at all.  My main point is that requiring the Muslims to obtain permission for something that other religious institutions already do, bells or church music broadcast to the public, though in a somewhat different manner by Muslims, call to prayers, is
    incongruous.  The call to prayers is for Muslims, the rest of us can just ignore it, like we do church bells and such.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/26  at  12:09 PM

  3. I don’t know, John. I’m trying to imagine sitting in the park with the wife and kid, chewing on a bucket of Kentucky Fried, maybe throwing a frisbee. If it’s on a Sunday I might hear a church bell now and then. Maybe a different day depending on the religion. Compare that with with braying of how great Allah is five times a day every day from a religion who wants to subjugate those who don’t believe in said religion . . . Ignore it? Hardly.

    Posted by Daniel Medley  on  04/26  at  12:24 PM

  4. Granted, it’ll be tougher to ignore than peeling bells.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/26  at  12:38 PM

  5. You should try walking down the street here when the local religion of power has one of its “world confrences” . . . shees.

    Posted by Daniel Medley  on  04/26  at  02:20 PM

  6. I don’t see any difference between this and church bells, myself. Someone’s singing in Arabic to Muslims to come pray: so what?

    But I’m not anti-muslim, and don’t particularly connect this to the war. Not directly anyway.

    When I grew up in Chicago, church bells would go off especially loudly. There were also a couple of carollons, basically church bells that played songs. Songs of worship of course.

    As it happens, there were also occasionally complaints and fighs in the city council over when and how church bells could be played, for people living near the churches often didn’t appreciate the noise.

    Posted by Dean Esmay  on  04/27  at  04:04 AM

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