Thursday April 13, 2023
Minneapolis (HOL) - The Minneapolis City Council is slated to vote on Thursday to lift restrictions on mosques' ability to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, or adhan, from their rooftops five times a day. Currently, mosques can only play the calls between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., limiting them to three or four broadcasts daily instead of the customary five. This amendment would position Minneapolis as the first major U.S. city to explicitly allow the complete set of broadcasts year-round, according to the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN).
The council is set to vote on an ordinance that would extend the hours during which adhans can be played through outdoor speakers. Local mosques are already allowed to use amplified sound for the announcements from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and a 2022 resolution verified that adhans could be broadcast throughout the year. Nonetheless, religious leaders have raised concerns about the time constraints, arguing that they have impeded early morning and evening prayer reminders.
The proposed ordinance addresses this issue by eliminating language restricting amplified sound overnight from the city code. Public broadcasts of the adhan are common in Muslim-majority nations but remain uncommon in the United States. Detroit suburbs Dearborn and Hamtramck, as well as Paterson, New Jersey, have practices and policies similar to those proposed in Minneapolis.
CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein told Axios that the amendment "sends a message to the world that freedom of religion is practiced here." He hopes other U.S. cities will emulate Minneapolis. Hussein anticipates that three to four local mosques, including one at a prominent Somali mall, will join the two that already regularly broadcast the adhan once the ordinance is enacted.
In 2020, Minneapolis temporarily permitted round-the-clock prayer call broadcasts in the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood during Ramadan, as the pandemic precluded Muslim residents from attending the mosque in person. Thousands of nearby residents could hear the adhan. Mayor Jacob Frey supports the proposal and plans to sign it if it passes the council.
Minnesota hosts the largest Somali population in the United States, with the majority residing in Minneapolis. The call to prayer is a valued tradition for many in the city's Muslim community, and permitting only partial broadcasts is seen as an unwarranted constraint. The adhan is a crucial link to their faith and cultural heritage, promoting a sense of unity and spiritual well-being within the community.
"The change in the ordinance would greatly benefit the Muslim community and allow us to fully practice our faith in our daily lives," said Wali Dirie, executive director of the Islamic Civic Society of America and Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, as quoted by Sahan Journal. "As a Muslim leader, I feel as if my prayers are still incomplete when the morning one is left out."