THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS ONE THING, BUT . . .

First major city votes to allow Muslim prayer call to be broadcast at all hours

April 15, 2023 | Chris Donaldson | Print Article

Minneapolis residents will be serenaded with the exotic sound of the Muslim call to prayer after the city council unanimously voted to amend the city’s noise ordinance in order to allow it to be broadcast at high volume over loudspeakers in public areas throughout the entire day, the first major U.S. city to do so in a historic vote that took place on Thursday.

The traditional prayer call, known as the adhan or azan, is recited five times daily from dawn to nightfall through the entire year, and while Minneapolis mosques have broadcast the prayer call before, the previous version of the ordinance had prevented some early morning and late evening broadcasts, limiting the number of times that it could be heard to as little as three times a day.

“Thursday’s vote, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marked the capstone of a years-long effort to allow more calls to be broadcast in Minneapolis, whose burgeoning population of East African immigrants has led to mosques dotting the landscape,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported of the unanimous vote that went down without any organized opposition.

Minnesota’s largest city, once one of the most wholesome all-American locales in the entire nation, has seen a dramatic shift in terms of demographics due to a decades-long influx of foreigners, particularly those emigrating from Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa as well as the rise of a new breed of progressive-socialist politicians who replaced more traditional liberals in positions of influence, notably in local government where their disastrous policies have turned Minneapolis into the crime-ridden hellscape that was ground zero for the summer 2020 race riots that erupted after black career criminal and drug addict George Floyd met an unfortunate demise at the hands of local police while being arrested.

Muslim leaders rejoiced over the city council’s vote to end noise restrictions.