Minneapolis approved change in noise regulations to allow Islamic call to prayer 5 times per day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is truly dumb. Opening Pandora’s box. Now everyone wants all kinds of concessions for all sorts of religious practices

Have you never heard church bells before?

What defines a call to worship and was that defined specifically for Muslims? Or, and this is ridiculous, but just putting it out there. Can somebody honk their horn for someone to hurry up at 6 AM to go to mass as “call to worship”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is truly dumb. Opening Pandora’s box. Now everyone wants all kinds of concessions for all sorts of religious practices

Have you never heard church bells before?

Good point -- and church bells have been used for secular reasons, too, e.g., marking the time and announcing important events, like the end of wars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What about separation of church and state?

The law the prevented the call to prayer is an example of something that violates the separation of church and state. This remedies that problem. If you actually believe that government shouldn't be involved in religion then they shouldn't be involved in preventing religious practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the call to prayer is one of the loveliest sounds out t
here. It's not like it's a honking horn.

I have insomnia and many nights I'm just getting real sleep (REM) between 4:30 am and 6:30 am. No matter how lovely the sound, if something woke me up every day at 5:30 am it would be a negative impact on my health as I would not be able to fall back asleep.

What about separation of church and state?

The point is after a couple weeks you wouldn't wake up anymore; the brain adjusts.

I used to live next to a hospital. It took about 2 weeks before I stopped noticing the constant sirens. I'd be talking to someone on the phone and they'd say "what the heck is that noise?" and I'd have to think about it for a moment before realizing yup, siren right outside my window. And sirens go all hours of the night by the way.

I grew up a block from a church. They rang bells at the start of every mass - so twice a day weekdays and four times on Sundays. I truly never noticed them when I lived there. Then when I went back to visit my parents it was so jarring at first!
You definitely get used to whatever your ambient environment is.

As for separation of church and state...
let's remember than what the first amendment actually says is "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[i][u]"
The establishment clause isn't the only part of the Bill of Rights. Specifying muslim call to prayer as OK, but not church bells, would be unconstitutional against the establishment clause. But prohibiting people from exercising their religion is *also* unconstitutional.