Public Call to Prayer at Buffalo Mosques Likely
A call to prayer, also known as Adhan, could soon be heard in some Buffalo neighborhoods on Fridays.
Faizan Haq is the founding president of Western New York Muslims. He says there's already what's called a soft call to public prayer in New York City and Minneapolis.
"Basically, that means that people around the institution, or the mosque, or the masjid that we call it, can hear the call prayer and they can join in," Haq said.
Haq says it creates a sense of belonging.
"When they do that in such an integrated, culturally integrated country or city, like New York or Buffalo, it's very welcoming. It's very heartwarming because you're home," Haq said.
Fillmore District Common Council member Mitch Nowakowski represents a large portion of Buffalo's Muslim community where many old churches have been given new life as mosques. Right now, he's working on legislation to potentially adapt noise ordinances to allow for soft calls to prayer.
"We're going over what decibels would be appropriate, and where, and really condensing it that maybe it will be a minute or two prayer call on Fridays which is when the Muslim community worships," Nowakowski said.
Members of the Muslim community approached Nowakowski about two years ago about this, and they've been looking at what other cities have already done.
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"I want to tell people that it may not be your social norm to hear a prayer call, but it is other people's social norm, and just like we hear church bells on Sundays, there will be prayer calls potentially that will come from mosques," Nowakowski said.
Haq says he's hopeful the Buffalo Common Council could pass legislation allowing for public calls to prayer by the end of the year.
Source: wgrz.com
