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.
We hear church bells all the time, so this seems reasonable.
Both are annoying mind control techniques
Glad church bells were the top comment… I grew up across the street from a church and I cannot say this loud enough FUCK CHURCH BELLS!! Ban them both, if you need to be called to pray or told what time it is buy a smartphone and set a reminder.
I lived next door to a church for a while, it was a fucking nightmare.
Both should be banned.
See I live in a wee village and despite my non- religiousness, the church bells are absolutely lovely.
I’d like to know if Muslims find the call to prayer a nice sound
I’m under the impression it’s them shouting in a megaphone.
We could just make that illegal too instead.
Are they using bells then?
I’d be annoyed if I lived near a Christian church that had a megaphone telling people to come pray, but bells at least seem less intrusive.
Less intrusive? They’re ridiculously loud.
Do you know what’s not loud? Configuring alarms in your phone. Wonder if these people have thought about it.
Fine with me. I’d be happy if both church bells and calls to prayer weren’t allowed.
Agreed.
Only the Internationale blasted 24/7, right?
No. Why would you even think that? What a silly thing to say.
Nah. Just some peace and quite.
Maybe just personal preference for me then, but I find it’s easier to ignore as it registers as background noise.
Someone blasting music or a speech would absolutely drive me up the wall though.
I’m wondering if you grew up hearing them and that’s why. You’re far more likely to tune out an intrusive noise that you’re very used to.
That’s the argument that all the “Muslims shouldn’t have extra privileges” miss.
No one should have extra privileges, but we can’t take away church bells because of all the Christians would cry foul, so we’re stuck giving more religions the right to make excess noise everytime they ask because otherwise it’s discrimination.
Caterwauling over a loudspeaker is much more disruptive and annoying than a bell and I don’t care who is caterwauling or ringing the bell
But honestly, yeah, apply all noise limits to everyone in the same way. If a bell is being rung during quiet hours and it’s too loud, then hit the church with a violation.
Look, you let one group be loud, you let all similar groups be loud. You don’t get to choose based on who you like or who makes a sound you like. Fair is fair.
I’d rather peace and quiet thank you very much, if I can’t have that, I’d rather fair rules over arbitrary ones.
Church bells originally existed for a purpose though and that was to strike the hour and ring alarm. Iirc the call to prayer can be used to tell time but like once or twice a day at best.
You can’t set a watch by prayer times unless you have a prayer time table for your locality. Because the start and end times for prayers are related to the solar diurnal motion, they vary throughout the year and depend on the local latitude and longitude when expressed in local time.
God: it’s 4:34:43 AM EST and oh whoops you didn’t get your prayer rug out on time. That one’s going straight to hell. Crosses name out on clipboard
Correct, though if your familiar with the area it’s a pretty good way to find out what time it is. Bells just do it better.
We have watches now.
I find Jehovas Witnesses and Mormons more annoying than an Adhan ever would be
Fuck both.