Thanks to a new resolution, the Muslim call to prayer can now be heard several times a day in Minneapolis, one of the biggest cities in the US Midwest, Anadolu Agency reported.
Proposing a bill to allow adhan, Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman announced the new decision approved by the city council earlier this month.
“The Adhan is one of the most important parts of our faith,” Osman wrote on Twitter.
“Mosques around the city can play the call to prayer during the hours of 7am to 10pm. These hours are set by the state as time when noise can be broadcast outside,” he added.
Equality
Osman called the move “a signal of the equality and community we have built here. This is America and we are allowed to share our faith from the rooftops, just like everyone else.”
The ordinance allows the playing of the adhan year-round, which is practiced in just three other U.S. cities: Paterson, New Jersey; Hamtramck and Dearborn, Michigan. In Muslim-majority countries, the adhan is commonly heard over a loudspeaker all year.
The decision comes after days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the 9th month of the Hijri Islamic calendar which commemorates the first revelation of the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad.