Sahan Journal’s Hibah Ansari reports Minneapolis’ City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to allow the Islamic call to prayer five times per day, and that Mayor Jacob Frey has said he will sign it. “Mosques were previously allowed to broadcast the adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, three to four times a day to comply with city noise ordinances,” Ansari reports. “A noise ordinance disallowed broadcasting it over a loudspeaker during the early morning and late night. Islamic prayer times depend on the position of the sun, so the exact times of each prayer varies from day to day.”
For the Spokesman-Recorder, H. Jiahong Pan rode along on Metro Transit with the agency’s new police chief, Ernest Morales III.
Mpls.St.Paul’s Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl reports Sean Sherman, of Owamni, has been named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of 2023.
The Duluth News Tribune’s Peter Passi reports two teens were rescued after they were swept down the Lester River and “took a trip over a small waterfall before managing to scramble atop an island.”
MPR’s Chris Farrell reports on Digi-Key’s efforts to address housing and child care shortages in the Thief River Falls region.
WCCO staff report St. Paul’s Water Street will close Friday ahead of expected flooding.
KSTP’s Krystal Frasier reports Nicholas Firkus will be sentenced today after his conviction of first and second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Heidi Firkus, in St. Paul in 2010.
WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins reports the Angry Trout Cafe in Grand Marais was sold to two longtime employees.
Adhan developed as an effective way t0 call to prayer. It’s not that much different from the old use of church bells. There’s no reason to give a variance from a noise ordinance. A call to religious services can easily be given through smart phones. As a practical matter most attendees live outside of the adhan hearing zone and are using their phones. If we’re giving the variance to religious institutions, shouldn’t small businesses be given a similar variation to advertise their lunch specials, price reductions, etc.
100%
Many years ago a small Mosque on the West Bank began broadcasting a call to prayer–often, and loudly. Folks complained, and the city made them stop. At the time, it occurred to me that they might have a good civil rights discrimination case, in view of the widespread loud ringing of church bells on Sundays and at other times. But they did not press the issue.