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| Hamtramack Fig Leaf |
| 2004-05-06 |
| After all the furor last month, the Hamtramack city council surrendered to the siren sound of the Islamic call to prayer "My main objection is simple," she said. "I don’t want to be told that Allah is the true and only God five times a day, 365 days a year. It’s against my constitutional rights to have to listen to another religion evangelize in my ear." At City Hall last week, before the final vote on the loudspeaker, a crowd of more than 100 crammed into a room, with dozens more listening or arguing in the hallway outside. Chuck Schultz, 49, a computer programmer from nearby Grosse Pointe, spoke against the measure. "Everyone talks about their rights," Schultz said. "The rights of Christians have been stripped from them. Last week, there were Muslims praying downstairs, in a public building. If Christians tried to do that, the ACLU would shut us down." Council members emphasized that there was nothing technically preventing the mosque from amplifying its call to prayer, even without amending the city’s noise ordinance, and compared the amplification to the chiming of church bells. The amendment just gave government officials leverage to limit the volume and hours of the broadcasts, said Councilman Scott Klein. Motlib said the mosque had applied for approval "because we want to be good neighbors." Paradoxically, the call to prayer is one that even most of the Muslims at al-Islah mosque cannot understand, because they speak Bengali rather than Arabic, said Khan, the mosque secretary |
| Posted by:RWV |
| #17 Comment link script is hashed - adds a prefix. URL: www.amble.com/mp3/Jonathan King - Everyone's Gone to the Moon.mp3 |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-06 10:10:29 PM |
| #16 I think I'll start a church - prolly have to move to Laficornia first - and we'll play this at Prayer Times (for Sammy Dago - every location has different times, y'know - or did ya?) I think I'll call it Gone to the Moon Church, Please Leave a Message. I hope Frank J doesn't nuke us. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-06 10:09:21 PM |
| #15 We should all encourage our local Temples of Cthulhu to emulate this assertion of the fundamental right to annoy one's neighbors. I've noticed some Cthulhu fans among the Rantburgists. Do you guys have any ideas for an appropriate prayer call, to be broadcast at 140db, say, 10 times a day? |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-05-06 10:03:20 PM |
| #14 snellenr/Howard - all outstanding tune selections imho. Add "Ain't 'talkin' 'bout love" from Van Halen and maybe some Hendrix Voodoo Chile'. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-06 9:47:53 PM |
| #13 They could do it all year if they only played 'Whole Lotta Rosie' at maxVol on Christmas Day. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-05-06 5:45:20 PM |
| #12 Somebody ping the Pride of Hamtramack? Since you ask I no longer as a matter of policy will use gas on my arab patients. |
| Posted by: Walter Kosciusko 2004-05-06 4:47:06 PM |
| #11 Next up... "The Church of Rock and Roll". There will be an amplified "Call to Rock Out" five times daily -- the first call occurs at 7am to the classic tune "Black Dog"... the last call is to the tune "Stairway to Heaven". |
| Posted by: snellenr 2004-05-06 3:43:55 PM |
| #10 The typical urban immigrant neighborhood starts to break up once the kids start college and they want to get a house in the suburbs. Maybe the Hamtramck Muslims will end up the same. However, in the meantime, there is nothing wrong with the natives there objecting to the noise factor. I've been awakened thousands of times by the dawn prayer call, al-fajr, while in Morocco, Egypt, and M Kingdom. It was always dreamy and at times downright beautiful. But it never really bothered me since I usually used the time to take a pee, so I would have gotten up anyway. Luckily, then back to sleep with no problem as I can go to sleep in the wink of an eye. OTOH, other kaffur would moan and bitch about it. I'd tell them they were only a plane ticket away from home if they couldn't cope. So I don't discount that some of the unquoted speakers at the hall meeting might have cited not being able to get back to sleep and NOT religion as a reason to object. If enough residents said this, then, as the fictional board, I'd tell the Muslims to use the telephone to inform the faithful it was time to get up. Or alarm clock. What's so difficult about that? Actually what I see coming down the line as a bigger problem is when Muslims go down to city hall for marriage licenses to tie the knot(s) with second, third, or fourth wives. Then what will the PCer's and same-sex advocates say to that? |
| Posted by: Michael 2004-05-06 12:25:55 PM |
| #9 LA has a Koreatown, and Westminster is "Little Saigon" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-06 11:19:41 AM |
| #8 Hamtramck used to be affectionately known as "pollack town". We'd go down there about once a month for great Polish chow and pastries. Lots of serbs/yugos started moving in during the 80s and muslims soon after. The mosque prayer call has actually been going on in other parts of Detroit ever since I can remember from the 70s, especially in Dearborn area. No surprise the ACLU hasn't touched this one. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-05-06 10:51:18 AM |
| #7 There's a Koreatown here in NYC. The lower 30s between Fifth and Broadway. Dozens of Korean restaurants, banks, bars, stores, etc. Also, many many delis/bodegas are Korean-owned and -operated. There's a long history of newcomer Koreans getting loans from Korean groups so they can start their stores. Then, once they've paid the loan back, they are part of the group that loans money to newcomer Koreans. |
| Posted by: growler 2004-05-06 10:19:03 AM |
| #6 LOL.... sorry. Above should read... Speaking of Fig leaves I wonder what the Pride of Hamtramack thinks about this. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-05-06 9:51:24 AM |
| #5 I wonder what the Pride of Hamtramack thinks or would have thought about this. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-05-06 9:49:52 AM |
| #4 Have you ever noticed how well that Koreans have assimmilated into the United States? There's a Korean-owned pizza parlor three blocks from my office. Good pizza and calzones, and you can get a side of kimchee. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-05-06 8:57:20 AM |
| #3 If it were near my house I would not hear it for long! A pair of wire cutters and all would be quiet! This is prime example of 'diversity' run amok. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2004-05-06 8:25:39 AM |
| #2 I would think that the town/city will geographically polarize over time so that there are Islamic neighborhoods and communities. Have you ever noticed how well that Koreans have assimmilated into teh United States? Is there such a thing as a Koreatown in any city? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-06 4:36:17 AM |
| #1 My hope is that, a lot of the non-muslim residents will make life impossible for the muslims and the latter will decide to leave or learn to keep their religious rites private. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4617 2004-05-06 2:10:53 AM |