An application by Australia’s largest mosque to publicly broadcast the Islamic call to prayer via four outdoor loudspeakers was turned down Monday by a local authority.
Canterbury-Bankstown Council, in inner western Sydney, rejected the proposal over concerns it would be intrusive and create too much noise in the neighbourhood, the Daily Mail reports.
Lakemba Mosque had requested permission for the broadcast to take place once a week on Fridays for 15 minutes using new giant outdoor, public-facing loudspeakers atop a towering minaret, as has been the case in other global cities.
The local Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) triggered a heated community backlash when it first submitted the application, attracting more than 1,600 submissions in opposition, the Mail report notes.
That sparked a fiery debate two weeks ago in the chambers of the local council.
Thousands reportedly signed an LMA petition supporting the proposal, with the petition declaring, ‘This is not about noise. This is about belonging.’
Independent Cr Saud Abu-Sameh even offered concerned residents a simple solution as he backed the proposal to broadcast the prayer.
Muslim worshippers participate in Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan, by taking over the streets outside the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney on April 10, 2024. An application by the same mosque – Australia’s largest – to broadcast Friday call to prayer has been rejected. (DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty)
“If you’re really annoyed about the bell or about the sound, close your windows,” he said.
As followers of Islam push for their public broadcast demand to be met, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census results show Muslims make up just 6.3 percent of the total population in Greater Sydney, equating to roughly 330,000 residents.
No decision has been publicly shared as to whether or not the LMA will appeal, however plenty of opponents have shared their views.
The now rejected application is similar to others around the world where mosques are seeking the same privilege to publicly broadcast the Islamic call to prayer in defiance of local opposition..
As Breitbart News reported, the call to prayer known in Arabic as the adhan, has been translated by the BBC as “God is great, there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.”
However, many have argued that this is a deliberate mistranslation, as the phrase “Allahu akbar” would be more accurately rendered as “[our] God is greater” instead of “God is great.”
In 2018 a mosque in northwest Germany was ordered to stop broadcasting its Friday call to prayer after a local court upheld a challenge by a couple opposed to the muezzin summons.
“It’s a chant in a key that’s disturbing to us, but it’s all about the content of the call, which sets Allah above our God as a Christian, and I, as a Christian who grew up in a Christian environment, do not accept it,” local media quoted the plaintiffs as saying.
In Sweden, police in the town of Växjö gave the go-ahead for the local mosque to broadcast the call to prayer in 2018, despite criticism by some local politicians who see it as representing religious domination rather than summoning Muslim adherents to worship.
The African nation of Ghana has previously claimed a solution to the growing problem of intrusive Islamic calls to prayer.
In a bid to curb noise pollution, authorities in Ghana previously wanted Muslims to use WhatsApp rather than public loudspeakers for the summons.
Local Muslims flatly rejected the idea.