“It’s a sign that we are here,” said Yusuf Abdulle.
QUICK FACTS:
- Minneapolis, Minnesota recently became the first large U.S. city to allow the Islamic call to prayer (adhan) to be broadcast publicly by its two dozen mosques, The Associated Press reports.
- Every mosque in the City of Lakes will be able to play the call to prayer outside.
- “It’s a sign that we are here,” said Yusuf Abdulle, director of the Islamic Association of North America, a network of three dozen mostly East African mosques, half of which are located in Minnesota.
- Abdulle noted that when he arrived in the U.S. two decades ago, “the first thing I missed was the adhan. We drop everything and answer the call of God.”
- “People will ask, What’s that? and then say, That’s cool,” said the director of the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, Tabitha Montgomery.
- “We hope that through calling the adhan in public, it would actually bring more interest from the neighbors in knowing about the religion of Islam,” stated Mowlid Ali, a local imam.
A MATTER OF “FREEDOM” OF RELIGION?:
- Jaylani Hussein, director of CAIR-Minnesota, said in 2020 that the broadcasts are both a matter of freedom of religion as well as a public show of support to the Muslim community.
- “Just as we have historically allowed churches to call out for prayers using a bell, this is a continuation of the same freedom that other faiths have had,” said Hussein.
BACKGROUND:
- The Muslim adhan states that the Islamic god is great, declares the Prophet Muhammad is his messenger, and requires men—not women—to go to the nearest mosque five times per day for prayer. Prayer is the second of the “Five Pillars of Islam.”
- Funding for the audio equipment was provided by CAIR (Council on American–Islamic Relations) that will be used to broadcast from the mosque in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis.
- CAIR is a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group headquartered on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with regional offices nationwide.
