A Force-Fed Call to Prayer

A good portion of America is still hopelessly stuck at home. Maybe you’re a single Mom or Dad, already going crazy, with maybe a house full of children who would normally be in school. You love your family, your children, but honestly, this stay at home thing is wearing a bit thin. 

And I forgot to mention – you’re a leftist and an atheist – maybe living in, say - Minneapolis. 

And then, imagine if you will, this begins. 

At 5:15 in the morning, as you and your entire family are sound asleep, you are abruptly awakened by the droning of a Christian Minister and the shriek of a Church choir. And for 3 to 5 minutes, 5 times a day, every day - at sunrise (pre-dawn) midday, afternoon, sunset, and night, this goes on. 

You have to endure shouting and singing about how great God is. 

How is this happening? I’m trapped at home having to endure this day in and day out.   

You’re an atheist! Heck, even the sight of a religious symbol like a cross displayed in a public place gives you the heebie-geebies! And now your local government officials – the Mayor and city council - leftists just like you, or so you thought, have given special permission to these Bible thumpers to broadcast their myopic message, via loudspeakers, all over the city? 

You say to yourself: "I can get a 100-year-old cross taken down from my city square, but I can’t stop this?" 

Well no – evidently you can’t stop this. However, this was just a made-up scenario to demonstrate the absurdity of what’s actually happening. 

Here’s what’s actually happening. 

Local residents living in and around the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis are forced to hear a publicly broadcast Muslim call to prayer five times a day from sunrise (around 5:15 am) until sunset (around 8:15 pm). 

And by publically broadcast, I don’t mean some app you download or radio you can switch off. I mean over loudspeakers, so there’s no way to escape it. 



 This is ridiculous! 

True, we have the God-given right and First Amendment right to practice the religion of our choice. But we don’t have the right to force others into experiencing it. 

As Americans, we have the right to speak our minds and say whatever we wish. However, the First Amendment doesn’t give us the right to be heard.

Now some would, of course, say that that’s just Islamophobia – that I just don’t want to hear them 'Mooslims.'

Wrongo! I wouldn't care if it were Christian, Jewish, or any other religion. I’d take great offense to be being forced to listen to something, anything, blaring out all over my neighborhood five times a day, regardless of what I’m hearing. 

I couldn’t imagine being a haggard mom and/or dad, stuck at home these days with three or four young children, all being jerked out of bed at 5:15 every morning. Then just as you get the young ones successfully down for a midday nap, the noise comes wafting over the city - then again later in the afternoon, then at sunset and once more at night when you’ve all settled in.

As I said – this is ridiculous and yet another example of identity politics and government inserting itself where it doesn’t belong – picking winners and losers. 

But because it’s Islam, it’s apparently okay.