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Britain
Mosque's plan to broadcast call to prayer from loudspeaker 'will create Muslim ghetto'
2008-01-14

Reminds me somehow of that newly constructed catholic church built in 2007, that was missing its bell, so not to "disturb" the heavily islamized local population.
Muslim elders at an Oxford mosque have said they intend to push ahead with plans to broadcast a call to prayer from a loudspeaker despite fierce opposition.

Local residents have attacked the idea saying it would disrupt the peace and turn the area into a 'Muslim ghetto'. But the elders said they still intend to seek planning permission to install the loudspeaker.
Of course they do. How else do you wake the faithful in a two mile radius and call them to prayer?
If granted, they would broadcast a two-minute long call three times a day from the Central Mosque, where up to 700 people gather to worship every Friday.

The idea has gained support from the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, who last week said those in opposition to the idea should "relax" and "enjoy community Diversity™".
Until the newly-invited diverse ones decide you're no longer welcome. Don't worry, the Rt Rev John will have a plan for that too. I think it's called 'conversion'.
But residents, who packed out a council meeting last month to signal their outrage, remain set against the plan which they say is an "un-neighbourly intrusion". They said they would rally to block the proposal when it is submitted to the council in nine months time, when construction on the mosque is complete.

Dr Allan Chapman, 61, who lives near the building, said: "The response against this has been incredible, we have been indundated with calls ranging from stiff upper lip outrage to sheer screaming fury.
Good.
"The universal message is what an utter cheek to inflict this on a non-Muslim area of Oxford. If this application goes forward then a large number of angry people are poised to form an opposition to it."

Dr Chapman added the broadcast is not to comparable to the ringing of church bells because: "They are just a signal. The Muslim call is a theological statement."
Some get it.
Residents have said the main objection is the loud amplification of the broadcast. Elizabeth Mills, 56, said: "We don't have a problem with the Imam climbing to the top of the minaret and shouting.

"But we object to electronic amplification. The Druid Bishop of Oxford might say it's ok but he doesn't have to listen to it."

Martin Stott, 53, a member of the Oxford Oratory, added: "This is not an anti-Muslim thing, it is more about community cohesion."

A spokesman for the Central Mosque said that sounding the call to prayer is a traditional part of the religion. Sadar Rana, 68, said: "Building work will take another nine months to a year, it is then that we plan to make an application to the council.

"We want to fix a loudspeak to our minaret to broadcast our call to prayer. We would like to have it three times a day but if that is not accepted, then we would like to have it at least on Fridays. We do not need the volume to be loud but we want to have the call in some form because it's our tradition and OUR country, now."
Posted by:anonymous5089

#21  why not assign songs to these frequent alerts.
AC DC's Highway to Hell comes to mind.
;) It would remind me of all of those fun videos that we've all seen and enjoyed.

Also, I wouldn't mind a reminder to catch last call at the bar....
Posted by: Jan    2008-01-14 19:00  

#20  YOu know, someone should come up with a Muslim clock that does the call to prayer at appropriate times. Then you wouldn't need to screech over the city and no muslims would have an excuse.

The only excuse for the annoying screetching is that it so perfectly sets the location in motion pictures. Oh, the call to prayer, we're in the 8th century, or the middle east. Okay.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-01-14 17:23  

#19  Call them to prayer with a very large explosive device, dropped by a British C-130, going off over their mosque. I'm sure they would understand...
Posted by: Old Patriot   2008-01-14 17:12  

#18  Gotta be careful about what blows up when you call a muzzie cell phone.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-01-14 15:28  

#17  How else do you wake the faithful in a two mile radius and call them to prayer?

Call them on their damn cellphones.
Posted by: SteveS   2008-01-14 15:27  

#16  s/carrilon/carillon/
Posted by: KBK   2008-01-14 15:27  

#15  I hate electronic bells, too. They sound like crap and they are too easy to use: just set the timer to play some extended 'carrilon' junk. Isn't it wonderful!! And we raised the money ourselves!!
Posted by: KBK   2008-01-14 15:26  

#14  The olde traditional amp and loudspeakers, just like Mo had. Just like they knuckled under in Hamtramk, MI. Press one for English?
Posted by: Phinater Thraviger   2008-01-14 13:50  

#13  "Muslim elders at an Oxford mosque have said they intend to push ahead with plans to broadcast a call to prayer from a loudspeaker despite fierce opposition."

Here is what an Oxford Muslim steeped in the cultural surrender of the West might be heard to say:

"Screw your fierce opposition, kufir. We are Muslim. We are your overlords. By now we thought you'd have understood that. You're stupid. You're cowards. And you're filthy, to boot.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We Muslims could set our alarm clocks at 5:00 am to go to prayer at 6:00 am, but most of us don't do that anyway. We just want the call to prayer stuffed in your face six times each day. Oh, you thought it was FIVE times per day? Wrong. The call to prayer is six times per day. Google Islam Finder to see the six times per day the call to prayer goes out to your Masters. Allah only requires us to answer the prayer five times each day. We Muslims don't get to the mosque too often at 6:00 am. You can understand that, can't you? We prefer to wait unti the call to prayer at 8:00 am. More civilized in the British way. While you kufir are at work at 8:00 am we Mulsims sneak out and go to mosque. Hey! Somebody has to earn a living while we recite by rote our prayers in order to collect the welfare checks each month. We get to work, if at all, by 9:30am. If we've got our OWN buisness to run we don't stick to the scheduled call to prayer to hard unless we've got kufir working in our place. That's just the way it is. Deal with it the way the multi-culti PC crowd does. No matter what we demand they give in to us! Ha!"

Posted by: Mark Z   2008-01-14 13:38  

#12  1,000+ years of history shows they dont' stop until the they are stopped.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611   2008-01-14 13:14  

#11  I was thinking something more Wagnerian, say Ride of the Valkyries into Valhalla, with subwoofer support from a General Electric YJ93-GE-3.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-01-14 12:34  

#10  I'd be setting up my own loudspeaker system - one that plays "Tequila!" at high decibels five times daily.

"Oh, was that annoying? So sorry... "
Posted by: mojo   2008-01-14 12:17  

#9  CrazyFool has the best idea especially since the money for this project is undoubtedly coming from Soddy Arabia.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305   2008-01-14 12:08  

#8  Dr Chapman added the broadcast is not to comparable to the ringing of church bells because: "They are just a signal. The Muslim call is a theological statement."

Excellent. Perhaps it would be about community cohesion because I would be tempted to erect a tower and install a PA system atop it and play Weird Al's 'Spam', or 'Bologna', or 'This song is just six words long' at the same time and I know from experience, it may be that a Monty Python song would be more appropriate, many may want to do a song to belches and farts, or just sound an old air raid siren. See, chaos.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-01-14 11:57  

#7  
A spokesman for the Central Mosque said that sounding the call to prayer is a traditional part of the religion.

So call people to prayer on their farking cell phones.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2008-01-14 11:52  

#6  anonymoose, i got a better one, down here in the south alot of churches still ring their bells on the hour and they ring once for the hour of the day say 12o'clock you get 12 rings
Posted by: sinse   2008-01-14 10:41  

#5  Simple answer,

Tell them that they can have their call to prayer as often as christian churches are allowed to ring their bells in Saudi Arabia. Or better yet in Mecca :).
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-01-14 10:33  

#4  Actually, the church bells idea is a good one, and should be presented in parallel with their call to prayer. Not at the same time, necessarily, but in the *orthodox* Christian manner.

That is, they ring the church bells for the Angelus prayer, which is a Catholic tradition but can also be done by CofE, in the morning, at midday and in the evening. They also ring them for daily mass, Wednesday evening mass, an on multiple times on Sunday. And for weddings and funerals.

This would mean the church bells would ring at least four times a day, and as often as six.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-01-14 10:24  

#3  Fine. We'll be ringing the Church bells AT THE SAME TIME.
Posted by: Ptah   2008-01-14 09:43  

#2  Anything which dominates their neighborers is a muslem thing.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-01-14 09:31  

#1   "This is not an anti-Muslim thing, it is more about community cohesion."

For me it is just an anti-muslim thing.
Posted by: Excalibur   2008-01-14 09:06  

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