A contentious battle is brewing in Dearborn, Michigan, over a mosque’s use of an outdoor loudspeaker for its call to prayer.
One resident spoke at Tuesday’s city council meeting, presenting a signed petition over the speaker at the Dearborn Community Center on Schaefer Road.
Andrea Unger cited a city ordinance, which states that people are prohibited from creating “the continuance of any unreasonably loud, disturbing, unusual or unnecessary noise which annoys, disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others within the limits of the city.”
“The mosques in East Dearborn are at times waking us up at 5:30 a.m. with a call to prayer and, at other times, forcing us to listen to the prayer in our yard and in our own home,” Unger said in the meeting.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Council President Mike Sareini said police investigated and gathered decibel tests from certain mosques. Sareini said the city has found instances of a mosque violating the city ordinance.
Sareini said the board is awaiting the police’s report before any action can be taken.
“We’re trying to get a handle on it, and it’s not legal, nor do we support it,” Sareini said.
Nabeel Bahalwan, director of the Dearborn Community Center, says there has been an ongoing complaint from a small group of residents, and he insists no rules are being broken. Bahalwan says police visited his site and informed him that he was within the allowable noise limit.
“This is crazy. We don’t wanna bother anybody,” Bahalwan told CBS News Detroit. “The city came in, the inspector, and there is a monitoring for the voice. We are even below the average of the rules.”
A call to prayer is a call for people of a specific faith to gather for worship. The Dearborn Community Center has a prayer schedule on its website, which occurs five times a day.
Under the city’s ordinance, intermittent noise is any noise that “goes on and off during a course of measurement of at least five minutes, but which exceeds ten seconds in duration each time it is on.
According to the city ordinance, 55 decibels is considered intermittent noise for a residential area at nighttime (between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.), whereas 60 decibels is considered intermittent during the day (7 a.m. to 10 p.m.). In commercial areas, 60 decibels are characterized as intermittent at night and 65 decibels during the day. Meanwhile, 70 decibels are labeled intermittent in industrial areas at night and 75 decibels during the day.
The ordinance also states that the use of loudspeakers is prohibited between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Bahalwan says he does not believe his mosque is violating any ordinance; however, he is concerned that some residents aren’t happy.
“We wanna keep our relationship with the neighbors peaceful. If they have any problems, they can talk to us,” he said.