Call to prayer should be allowed after Ramadan and the pandemic

The Muslim call to prayer, which is being publicly broadcast by outdoor loudspeakers at mosques across Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic during Ramadan, has sparked controversy.

This is the first time in history where the public call to prayer has occurred in Canada. Municipalities have agreed to waive their noise bylaws to allow the call, which would otherwise violate that bylaw.

Mosques remain empty due to the pandemic and this call to prayer exception has been granted in hopes that of giving Muslims a sense of unity and connection when they cannot gather in person.

While the gesture for the call to prayer to be broadcast during Ramadan is appreciated and we at the Muslim Advisory Council of Canada are grateful for the leniency shown by municipalities across Canada during Ramadan, we believe this exception raises a more pressing matter: that Christian churches in Canada are and have been exempt from this noise bylaw.

To clarify, as someone who was born and raised in Canada, who grew up hearing church bells ringing every Sunday and thinking how beautiful the sound was, which quite literally symbolizes calling people to service/prayer, something that Muslims are VERY familiar with, I find it hypocritical that the Muslim call to prayer during Ramadan in Canada is filled with controversy.

Bylaw policies should reflect the needs and voices of the community

The anti-Muslim campaign that is rampant in the Peel region states that the athan — call to prayer — is unconstitutional.

The deep rooted Islamophobic rhetoric present in Canadian society had been amplified by a mere month long call to prayer. Canadian Muslims are once again subject to hurtful stereotyping and racism.

The call to prayers that are occurring at mosques around Canada will conclude once Ramadan ends, which will be near the end of May.

With over one million Muslims in Canada and Islam being the second largest religion in the country, we believe that municipalities across Canada should be meeting with their diversity and inclusion advocates along with key Muslim stakeholders in community to hold discussions about whether the public call to prayer should be made permanent outside of Ramadan. Public input should be considered, too.

The groundwork has been laid. The Ramadan call to prayer has proven just this.

We believe policies of noise bylaw exemptions should be granted to mosques around the country, specifically on Fridays and/or the two Eid holidays. Fridays are considered a holy day for Muslims around the world, as Muslims gather for prayers as a community every week to pray Jummah. Friday Jummah is essentially the Sunday service equivalent for Christians.

Bylaw policies should reflect the needs and voices of the community. The needs have been made clear with the call to prayers that have been appearing at mosques during Ramadan all over Canada.

An update of bylaw policies by municipalities in regards to the noise bylaw exception is apparent in order to reflect an equitable lens of Canadian Muslims, one outside the pandemic exception made in Ramadan.

This would, after all, give Canadian Muslims a sense of unity, tranquility and peace, one that our Christian friends and neighbours are accustomed to.

Tabassum Wyne is Executive Director of the Muslim Advisory Council of Canada