UNITED STATES: The adhaan is becoming a lot more common in America – and Islam’s call to prayer can become even wider – according to a Muslim member of the Minneapolis City Council.

Jamal Osman, elected to the city council in August 2020, has already successfully advocated for a law to permit the broadcast of the from nearly 40 masaajid in Minneapolis.

He believes that the same law can now easily be approved in many other cities across America.

Osman says the adhaan was within existing laws which permits music, sounds and verbal recitations to be played publicly as long as they do not exceed a certain “decibel noise” ceiling.

After exploring the law, Osman determined that if the level of the “Call to Prayer” remained under the legal decibel sound ceiling, it would be approved to be broadcast from the city’s mosques between the hours of 07h00 and 22h00 every day throughout the year.

“There will be four prayers that will be accepted (called over a microphone), leaving the Fajr prayer behind,” Osman told Arab News. “The mosques here and the community are happy.

“Some of the mosques here and the leaders of the mosques, the masjids, they felt they wanted to be respectful to non-believers and they wanted to be respectful to their neighbours. And some of them actually decided not to call to prayer right away but to have a community engagement to welcome their neighbours and letting them know the policies of the city now allows us to call to prayer from the rooftops of the mosques.

“And I think the experience and the feedback we had for the entire city of Minneapolis has been nothing but positive.”

The new law was adopted unanimously by all 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council, which includes only three Muslim members and 10 non-Muslim members.

Osman, who came to America as a refugee from Somalia in 2000, said the goal was not to create an annoyance for non-Muslims who live near the mosques - but to be respectful to the non-Muslim majority community.

He is currently engaging with lawmakers in other cities where the adhaan is not being called to see if they can change things in the near future.

Darul Ihsan Media Desk