In the days leading up to one of the holiest holidays of the year local officials around the country threatened to arrest Christians for publicly celebrating Easter. The Attorney General of the United States had to get involved in one case because even drive up churches were considered illegal.
Yes, if a Pastor dared use a loudspeaker outside while attendees remained in their vehicles local officials wanted to throw them in jail. Officials were eager to send police to cite individuals however Minneapolis is going the “extra mile” to make sure Muslims celebrating Ramadan are “safe.”
Ramadan is the holiest month for Muslim’s, it’s a time of prayer and fasting, those prayers normally happen inside a mosque five times a day.
During Ramada there is an increase in prayer attendance at local mosques. “People are standing shoulder to shoulder and in lines, and so the social distancing is always very challenging,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations said.
The Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey worked with Muslim leaders and is allowing the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque to publicly speaker broadcast “call to prayer” five times a day.
WCCO 4 reports:
“We want to make sure that people can practice their religion, yes, but it can’t conflict with the overarching public health guidelines,” Frey said. “It allows people to stay together even when they’re praying apart, and we want to make sure that we’re doing proper social distancing and physical distancing in particular.”
Cedar-Riverside has a large Muslim population. Leaders hope the sound to prayers will be a connector for all who feel isolated from community because of COVID-19. What the city does not want is people feeling obligated to run to the mosque for prayer.
“That will be a part of the call is to make sure that people pray at home,” Hussein said. “We want to make sure people don’t put the pressure on, ‘I need to get back to the mosque and pray,’ and so by having these calls to prayer, I think it just eases people from feeling that need to connect.”
The broadcast will be generated from the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, and organizers expect it will reach thousands of residents from sunrise to shortly after sunset.
Christians were just trying to celebrate Easter on their property and they were threatened with arrest. However, in Minneapolis no matter if you are Muslim or not you’ll be able to hear “call to prayer” five times a day.
