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.

    • 790@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      The German word for actions like that is “Konfrontative Religionsbekundung”. My layman translation would be “confrontational exhibition of religious faith”.

  • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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    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.

  • teft@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Gerula@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, they managed to put the foot in the door (you’re fucked) just you wait what other special treatments religious folk will require …

    • ME5SENGER_24@lemm.ee
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      Glad church bells were the top comment… I grew up across the street from a church and I cannot say this loud enough FUCK CHURCH BELLS!! Ban them both, if you need to be called to pray or told what time it is buy a smartphone and set a reminder.

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        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

    • li10@feddit.uk
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      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.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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      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.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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          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.

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            It’s all relative noise levels and how reasonable a noise is. Tbh I’ve never lived somewhere with church bells that make loud noises during night hours like the Muslims do with their call to prayer, but I guess if a church was doing that, I’d support restricting them, too.

  • ChiefSinner@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    My GF lives by a mosque where they blast their off-tone, lazy chants at full blast. Its awful. Its so loud it rattles her windows. Apparently its to evangelize, but I can’t imagine anyone getting swayed when their ear drums burst from poorly toned chants.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      I lived about 3 miles from a church in a mid-sized town in the midwest. On Sundays they’d play music on some gigantic jangly bell thing I could hear loudly at my house… again, 3 miles away. I can’t imagine the noise complaints a regular person would get for playing something that loud, but they’re a church so apparently it’s fine.

      • MrBusiness@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        On the one hand, I would be annoyed by more loud noise. On the other hand, it would show the other churches how obnoxious their 5 to 10 minute bell jingles are (hopefully).

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        This happens surprisingly often. There is a church on my block that I can’t hear unless I go right up to the building on Sundays and I know that they do get into because during Covid they moved outside with the singing.

    • HerbalGamer@lemm.ee
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      Used to go to school near a mosque.

      Their broadcasts are actually some really nice kind of singing, which is a lot less intrusive than the church bells I get across the village at 6 in the morning.

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        I’m not part of the religion, but I used to use the call to prayer to wake up during finals week during university. It was different than my other alarms, so my body had a 0% chance of sleeping through it.

        Worked astounding well.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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    I still think this issue can be solved with an app. In fact I am willing to help work on it as long as they promise to put it to bed.

    You get a little cry to prayer on your personal device based on your location.

  • Md1501@lemmy.world
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    So see if the city has like a max db for speakers, get a device to measure the decibels and complain on that front. Let them know you are not arguing about the prayer ( sucks but I think that battle is lost for now) but the noise level is disruptive

    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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      Why?

      This is not an attack on Islam.

      Why does one group have the right to blast (a sound 10db louder sounds twice as loud to the human ear.) the neighbourhood with noise?

      How does their right to broadcast trump the right of others to have some peace and quiet?