Minister Helps Michigan Non-Muslims Fight Mosques' Prayer Broadcast Ordinance
by Chad Groening
May 6, 2004
(AgapePress) - Members of an Ohio church are coming to the aid of some Michigan residents who do not want a call to Muslim prayers blasted over loudspeakers in their community.Jim Marquis is pastor of the New Covenant Worship Center in Wellston, Ohio. When he learned about the situation in Hamtramck, Michigan, where city council members were prepared to pass a new ordinance allowing mosques in the community to broadcast their calls to prayer, he decided to get involved. (See Earlier Article)
Last week Marquis took nine church members with him to speak on behalf of citizens in the community who felt passing an ordinance giving the mosques an exemption from the city's noise regulations would infringe on the rights of non-Muslim residents. He explains how the several-times-daily Muslim broadcast would affect the rest of the community.
"There's no place that you can go. You're going to be able to hear it in your home; you're going to hear it in your automobile, on your lawn, wherever you are -- you have no choice. Five times a day for up to five minutes at a time, you're going to have to hear this prayer recited to Allah, in whom we do not believe as Christians," Marquis says.
"We do not feel that they have a right to broadcast through an amplification system that prayer that we are forced to listen to, and we have no recourse or redress," he adds.
The pastor says the City Council of Hamtramck bought into the argument from the Muslim community that the prayer calls are no different than church bells. But he feels the two are by no means the same.
"They've made sure that you understand what they're saying in this foreign language," Marquis explains, "being 'Allah is great' four times in the very beginning of it, and 'Come to prayer,' and 'We believe Mohammad to be his only prophet.' It's disgusting, and it's just absolutely intrusive upon everyone's rights that this takes place."
Marquis asserts, "There's no comparison between a church bell that is a nondescript sound, and a prayer. This is not just a 'Hey, come to church.' It's a prayer that's being offered to a false God." Nevertheless, the council members unanimously passed the ordinance, disregarding the protests of non-Muslims from the community.
In response, Pastor Marquis is now working with Hamtramck residents on several options in an effort to get the new rule thrown out. He is talking with Christian attorneys about the possibility of taking legal action against the city council, and is also helping to advance a referendum effort.
