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.
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.
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.
I find the call to prayer more offensive than inclusive
We hear church bells all the time, so this seems reasonable.
Are they using bells then?
I’d be annoyed if I lived near a Christian church that had a megaphone telling people to come pray, but bells at least seem less intrusive.
Do you know what’s not loud? Configuring alarms in your phone. Wonder if these people have thought about it.
Maybe just personal preference for me then, but I find it’s easier to ignore as it registers as background noise.
Someone blasting music or a speech would absolutely drive me up the wall though.
Oh yes, the mind control rays that turn the anal religion antenna on to make you follow evil beliefs
In the Middle Ages, bells were thought to have supernatural powers. During the 7th century it is said that the Bishop of Aurelia rang the bells to warn people of an attack. When the enemy heard them, they were said to have fled in fear. The people credited the bells with having saved them. In a world with little man-made noise, the sound of bells was not only majestic, but could be deeply fearful
Where does fear occur?
Church bells originally existed for a purpose though and that was to strike the hour and ring alarm. Iirc the call to prayer can be used to tell time but like once or twice a day at best.
You can’t set a watch by prayer times unless you have a prayer time table for your locality. Since the start and end times for prayers are related to the solar diurnal motion, they vary throughout the year and depend on the local latitude and longitude when expressed in local time.
See I live in a wee village and despite my non- religiousness, the church bells are absolutely lovely.
I’d like to know if Muslims find the call to prayer a nice sound
That’s the argument that all the “Muslims shouldn’t have extra privileges” miss.
No one should have extra privileges, but we can’t take away church bells because of all the Christians would cry foul, so we’re stuck giving more religions the right to make excess noise everytime they ask because otherwise it’s discrimination.
Caterwauling over a loudspeaker is much more disruptive and annoying than a bell and I don’t care who is caterwauling or ringing the bell
But honestly, yeah, apply all noise limits to everyone in the same way. If a bell is being rung during quiet hours and it’s too loud, then hit the church with a violation.
Look, you let one group be loud, you let all similar groups be loud. You don’t get to choose based on who you like or who makes a sound you like. Fair is fair.
I’d rather peace and quiet thank you very much, if I can’t have that, I’d rather fair rules over arbitrary ones.
Good. Muslims deserve it.
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.
