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 find the call to prayer more offensive than inclusive
You will hear it and you will like it.
The German word for actions like that is “Konfrontative Religionsbekundung”. My layman translation would be “confrontational exhibition of religious faith”.
To me it sounds like a particularly angry donkey
Having lived in Bedstuy where a loud Muslim prayer happens every Friday morning, it’s annoying as fuck and should not be exempted from ordinary noise ordinances.
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.
My experience was one of having someone else’s religion thrust upon me.
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
Every Friday isn’t that bad, here in Indonesia especially around Java it will be played every evening, some even plays it 5 times a day…
Houses of worship can broadcast up to 10 decibels over the ambient sound level
10db may not sound like much but a sound 10db louder sounds twice as loud to the human ear.
The ambient sound level… OF FUCKING NEW YORK
Damn logarithms!
That doesn’t put it in perspective at all. Both of those things are very loud. Ambient noise in NYC is kind of medium to low, depending on time of day and exact location. What does 10 dB above the ambient noise at 4:30 AM sound like? The double of breathing is leaves rustling.
The Islamic call to prayer happens before sunrise, just after noon, late afternoon, just after sunset, and night time.
I think you’re going to have a fuck load of complaining when that bad boy goes off at 4:30 am. I used to live in Mosul and you could hear the imams all across the city. It’s like a giant alarm clock.
Religions shouldn’t get special privileges.
This is some backward ass bullshit. Keep your religious garbage to yourself. Complain about Christians forcing school prayers then have this dumb shit.
Religion: Get away without paying taxes, receive special privileges, and influence government policy!
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Well, they managed to put the foot in the door (you’re fucked) just you wait what other special treatments religious folk will require …
what if you live next door? Kinda like your neighbor’s dog barking or mowing grass if you work nights
I lived about 3 miles from a church in a mid-sized town in the midwest. On Sundays they’d play music on some gigantic jangly bell thing I could hear loudly at my house… again, 3 miles away. I can’t imagine the noise complaints a regular person would get for playing something that loud, but they’re a church so apparently it’s fine.
On the one hand, I would be annoyed by more loud noise. On the other hand, it would show the other churches how obnoxious their 5 to 10 minute bell jingles are (hopefully).
This happens surprisingly often. There is a church on my block that I can’t hear unless I go right up to the building on Sundays and I know that they do get into because during Covid they moved outside with the singing.
Used to go to school near a mosque.
Their broadcasts are actually some really nice kind of singing, which is a lot less intrusive than the church bells I get across the village at 6 in the morning.
Wait until some dude with shitty voice does that…
It’s loud and high-pitched and unasked for anyway.
My GF lives by a mosque where they blast their off-tone, lazy chants at full blast. Its awful. Its so loud it rattles her windows. Apparently its to evangelize, but I can’t imagine anyone getting swayed when their ear drums burst from poorly toned chants.
Nobody is getting swayed, but your gf may be tempted to move away, opening the place for more Muslims and creating a Muslim area.
Why am I thinking about c90adventures when he was in like Mexico and the market across from his hotel was blaring something over what im convinced were some old ww2 air raid sirens.
I still think this issue can be solved with an app. In fact I am willing to help work on it as long as they promise to put it to bed.
You get a little cry to prayer on your personal device based on your location.
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There’s hundreds of apps that already do this, I have two of them on my phone. There’s more to it than just the sound
And then Americans call Europe a New Mogadishu, lol.
So see if the city has like a max db for speakers, get a device to measure the decibels and complain on that front. Let them know you are not arguing about the prayer ( sucks but I think that battle is lost for now) but the noise level is disruptive
see if the city has like a max db for speakers
…
Houses of worship can broadcast up to 10 decibels over the ambient sound level, the mayor’s office said.
Did you miss that part?
I actual did miss that, but the purpose of doing what I said would be making sure they did not exceed the decibel limit
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Good. Muslims deserve it.
Why?
This is not an attack on Islam.
Why does one group have the right to blast (a sound 10db louder sounds twice as loud to the human ear.) the neighbourhood with noise?
How does their right to broadcast trump the right of others to have some peace and quiet?
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