Free Republic

Egyptian activist Rana Abdel Hamid celebrated her win by claiming that she and other Muslims were the actual victims of the September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks and that they should “unapologetically” Islamize the city. An Egyptian-American won a United States city approval for the Islamic call to prayer (Adhan) to be blasted from loudspeakers five times a day at three mosques in her New York neighborhood during Ramadan. Muslim community organizer and politician Rana Abdel Hamid posted on several media platforms that she received approval Monday from the Astoria neighborhood, known as “Little Egypt.” The neighborhood is situated west...

Mosques in Minneapolis will now be able to broadcast the “Adhan,” or public call for prayer, multiple times each day. In a move pushed for by Councilmember Jamal Osman, mosques will not need to apply for permits to broadcast outside their doors if noise ordinances are followed. “This is huge. This is huge to many people who call Minneapolis home,” Osman said. Prior to the change, many members of Minneapolis’ Muslim community relied on alarms and timers to know the proper time to pray – a practice done five times throughout each day. “In our faith, it is obligatory,” said...

Hamas on Friday denounced the “Muezzin Law”, which passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset this week, warning the law would face “stiff resistance”. “This decision will not pass,” deputy Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said after Friday prayers in Gaza. “Our people and nation will raise the Azan all over the world,” he said, using the Arabic word for the Muslim call to prayer, according to AFP. The “Muezzin Law” was originally to have been applied during all hours of the day, but haredi parties objected to its original wording, fearing that it could be used to silence the Shabbat...

A law to muffle mosques’ amplified calls to prayer in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem won preliminary approval on Wednesday in a charged parliamentary session where Arab legislators denounced the measure as racist. Supporters of the bill say it is aimed at improving the quality of life of people living near mosques who have been losing sleep. The calls usually begin sounding a little before 5 A.M. through loudspeakers mounted on minarets Opponents say the legislation, sponsored by right-wing parties, impinges on the religious freedom of Israel’s Muslim minority. Arabs make up almost 20 percent of the population and have...

Muslims and Muslim sympathizers protested Donald Trump today in New York’s Times Square. Chelsea Clinton boasted about being there with her daughter, Charlotte. Hamas darling, Linda Sarsour was also there spreading hysteria and propaganda about President Donald Trump. In Sarsour’s speech, she reminded people about the executive order that Democratic President FDR passed which put Japanese Americans in internment camps implying that Muslims and minorities could possibly suffer the same fate under a Trump presidency. There was also a loud Arab call to prayer during this protest in NYC. In an Islamic call to prayer (adhan), the Muslim is shouting...

A weekly call to prayer for Muslims will be heard at Duke University starting Friday, school officials said. Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association will chant the call, known as adhan or azan, from the Duke Chapel bell tower each Friday at 1 p.m. The call to prayer will last about three minutes and be “moderately amplified,” officials said in a statement Tuesday. “The adhan is the call to prayer that brings Muslims back to their purpose in life, which is to worship God, and serves as a reminder to serve our brothers and sisters in humanity,” said Imam...

For a long time I did not hear the beauty of church bells; or more accurately, I did not wish to hear it. They sounded only like Christianity, which in my early years was a vexing triumphalist sound--the pealing of history, from which my honor as a Jew required me to recoil. When the tintinnabulations of the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Avenue O reached my ears, they brought the message that I was a member of a minority. I was not acquainted with the liturgical schedule of the church, with the practical reason for the ringings--though I might...

It is just a few days until Easter, the most important date in the Christian calendar. But for 700 Muslims who have gathered in a rural caravan park, this week has a different religious significance. And to some of their neighbours, the thrice-daily calls to prayer are proving a strain on a harmonious relationship. The Iranian Muslims have converged on the Trevelgue Holiday Park in Porth, Cornwall, to celebrate yesterday's Persian New Year. Every day at sunrise, noon and sunset they broadcast their prayers, known as Adhan, on a loudspeaker system. But some residents are complaining that the noise is...

OXFORD, England (AFP) - Famous for its university and quintessentially English "dreaming spires," the city of Oxford has been plunged into controversy over the sound of Muslim call to prayer from a local mosque. Those church spires have been joined by a minaret, with a loudspeaker on top which has triggered protests from locals concerned about the influx of a foreign culture. "I don't have any problem with Islam but don't force it on people," said Oxford University historian Allan Chapman, whose typically English house has a view of both the minaret and the nearby Church of Saint Mary and...

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated..., Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."

Senior officials at Oxford Central Mosque are going back to the drawing board over plans to broadcast a call to prayer from its minaret. A new management committee has been elected at the mosque, in Manzil Way, off Cowley Road, and has moved to reassure worried neighbours. Secretary general Altaf Hussain said: "This was a decision made on emotions, rather than facts and realities on the ground and without proper consultation with our neighbours and the whole of our neighbourhood. It has caused anxiety and misunderstandings. "The issue of using loudspeakers is being reviewed and we would like to make...

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A battle of faiths is being waged in the ancient English city of Oxford, where some people are bitterly opposed to Muslim plans to broadcast the call to prayer over the fabled dreaming spires. Local residents, clergy and now the head of the Church of England have been drawn into a debate over a proposal from the Central Oxford Mosque to broadcast a recording of the call to prayer, or Adhan, from its minaret over loud speakers. Residents who live near the mosque claim the call will annoy their mainly non-Muslim community and won't even be...