Minneapolis, Minnesota – Pastor Jane Buckley-Farlee was recently walking through the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of her Minneapolis church when a song suddenly started playing.
She told Al Jazeera: “I heard this music sounded like heaven. At first she didn’t know what it was – but after a while she realized it was adhan, or Muslim call to prayer.
“It echoed between all the buildings, but it was still a little hard to hear with all the traffic,” she recalls. “But it just makes me smile. I stopped, listened and just smiled. I look silly, but it’s so gentle and beautiful. “
While public broadcasting of adhan is common in Muslim-majority countries, Minneapolis recently became the first major city in the United States to allow it year-round after the city council announced passed the resolution in March. Now, the city’s thousands of Muslim residents, many of them Somali immigrants, can hear the same familiar calls on the streets of their new home – and not just in the past. time holy month of Ramadan.
Jamal Osman, a member of the city council’s three-Muslim caucus who proposed the resolution, said it was “a great honor, the first recognition of the month of Ramadan by the city and acknowledge that the call to prayer may be transmitted in Minneapolis.”
While the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in the city Cedar Riverside The neighborhood, home to many Somalis and other East African residents, has been broadcasting Ramadan since 2020, others are now preparing to join it year-round. At the Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center near the city center, the adhan will begin to ring before the end of September, chief executive Abdullahi Farah said.
“We want to respect and listen to feedback before we do that,” Farah told Al Jazeera, noting that the center plans to hold a public consultation event in the coming weeks.
Since the five daily prayer calls are based on the rising and falling of the sun, the earliest and latest will likely remain internal for most of the year, Farah said. The volume will be comparable to that of a church bell – audible but not disturbing the surrounding area.
“It was a huge opportunity for us to reach our neighbors and the wider community, but first and foremost it was an opportunity for us as Muslims. It reminds us of home,” Imam Mowlid Ali told Al Jazeera.
“It reminds us that we belong here. It reminds us that we do not hide our faith. In a way, it increases our confidence and also our sense of belonging to this community.”
Build bridges
In the wider community, regular broadcasting of adhan will allow residents of various faiths and backgrounds to “know this beautiful song and its meaning,” Ali said.
“It’s a way to invite people to the mosque, because there’s a passage in the Quran that says ‘come to pray, go to success,'” he added. “So it’s an invitation to the neighbors and the public to actually come to the mosque and get to know the Muslim community.”
AJ Awed, who helps develop programming policies and strategies for the Cedar-Riverside Community Council neighborhood association, said the city’s recent resolution marks Osman’s fulfillment of his campaign pledge.
“Efforts like this are always beneficial,” Awed told Al Jazeera. “It helps to build bridges across understanding and to feel at home when you respect your own cultural and religious values in such a way.”
The initiative has only garnered positive feedback from the community, he added.
“Our community is large, tolerant and very welcoming,” says Awed. “And [the call to prayer] really not too loud – it’s just loud enough for the neighborhoods. “
Buckley-Farlee said she finds adhan to be a soothing sound. “I think that’s great,” she said. “I appreciate hearing it, because it reminds me of how great God is – that we all have these different lenses trying to figure out how the whole thing of God works. hey… Just being aware of that on a regular basis is great.
“And I know that when it resonates in the neighborhood, it really touches the Muslim population,” added Buckley-Farlee. “They feel at home again and welcome and safe – all that good stuff.”
