DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Some Dearborn residents are voicing complaints about outdoor calls to prayer that can be heard on loudspeakers throughout the city.
Dearborn, which has a vast Muslim population, has many mosques that play the calls to prayer a few times a day. While some don't mind it, others who do not practice the religion say they personally don't wish to hear it.
Watch Ruta Ulcinaite's video report below:
At the Islamic Institute of Knowledge on Schaefer Road, the call to prayer comes out of a loudspeaker twice a day for about two minutes. It's just one of the many mosques that follow this practice in the city, raising some concerns with residents.
The daily call to prayer is something Dearborn resident Andrea Unger says she personally does not want to listen to on a daily basis. She's brought this up at numerous city council meetings including on Oct. 7.
"Your freedom of religion does not allow you to force me to listen to your prayers in my yard or home," Unger said.
Unger lives just blocks away from the Islamic Institute of Knowledge and ever since they began work on an extension to their mosque about two years ago, she says the noise of the prayers has become too much. While she says she respects all cultures and religions, it's not something she feels her and her neighbors need to be exposed to. In the beginning, the mosque admits they did their first prayer around 5 a.m., but have since stopped.
"The early morning prayers, we understand there might be some people concerned with those but since these complaints came in, we took the proactive step to eliminate the morning prayer just to be respectful to the community," said Fouad Berry, board member at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge.
The institute says they received two official complaints and have worked with the city to rectify them. But Unger says it's not just the Islamic Institute of Knowledge. She says there are many mosques in the city, including the Islamic Center of America of Ford, which all participate.
The city ordinance states that noise is not allowed to exceed 70 decibels in residential areas in the daytime and 60 decibels at night. Additionally, loudspeakers are not permitted between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
"If we have or can identify a mosque that's doing it before 7 in the morning or if there is an excess of the decibel level, they'll be written a citation," said Issa Shahin, chief of the Dearborn Police Department, at the Oct. 7 city council meeting.
Shahin says he has been working with houses of worship to make sure they are in compliance and measuring decibel levels, hoping residents can come to terms with these short moments of prayer.
"It's not different from church bells that you may hear on Sunday," Shahin added.
Ali Alemarah, who lives near a mosque, sees the diversity differently.
"Dearborn is a beautiful thing. A lot of religions here being practiced. Churches, mosques, synagogues, so it's a beautiful thing. It's what America's all about," Alemarah said.
There is another city council meeting where residents say they will continue to call attention to the issue. That meeting is scheduled for Tues., Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.
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