Friday, May 21, 2004
CELEBRATE CULTURAL DIVERSITY AT 6am—WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT
From this piece by Val MacQueen:
Here's a thought: maybe people just don't want to be rousted at 6am every day by a ululating loudspeaker—no matter its content—only to be subjected to its pronouncements four more times before day's end.
I have a suggestion to test the theory that "anti-Islam" motivates the community's objections: try belting Bible verses from your infernal loudspeaker 5 times a day, starting at 6am, and see if the reception is any warmer. Or try reading the headlines from the Detroit Free Press. Or playing Echo & The Bunnymen's Greatest Hits. Do you suppose the fine folks of Hamtramck are any more inclined to put up with these intrusions than with Muslim calls to prayer?
But if you conducted this experiment, your "anti-Islam" victimhood tool would be exposed as the debate-stifling bludgeon that it is. So naturally, you won't.
By the way, Mr. Ahmed, if anti-Islam sentiment is so rampant in your community, how did you manage to get elected to the city council?
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From this piece by Val MacQueen:
Hamtramck, Michigan, a 23,000 strong community known for Polish food, strong Catholic values and the energizing strains of the polka will soon be moving to the strains of a new song- Islam. That is, unless residents defeat the town council’s permission for the Bangladeshi al-Islah mosque to broadcast calls to prayer five times a day.
Each call to prayer lasts around two minutes – so for 10 minutes a day all residents of this small mid-west town will be forcibly exposed to Islam in the name of multiculturalism. The first call will go out at 6 a.m. and the last one at 10 p.m. . .
According to CBS, the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee urged tolerance of the issue, loftily condemning the “resentment and negativity” expressed by local residents.
CBS also reported City Council member Shahab Ahmed, who is Bangladeshi and attends al-Islah, said he was surprised the call to prayer turned into a big issue. But he noted that he had previously experienced anti-Muslim sentiment in Hamtramck- particularly during his 2001 council bid following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Here's a thought: maybe people just don't want to be rousted at 6am every day by a ululating loudspeaker—no matter its content—only to be subjected to its pronouncements four more times before day's end.
I have a suggestion to test the theory that "anti-Islam" motivates the community's objections: try belting Bible verses from your infernal loudspeaker 5 times a day, starting at 6am, and see if the reception is any warmer. Or try reading the headlines from the Detroit Free Press. Or playing Echo & The Bunnymen's Greatest Hits. Do you suppose the fine folks of Hamtramck are any more inclined to put up with these intrusions than with Muslim calls to prayer?
But if you conducted this experiment, your "anti-Islam" victimhood tool would be exposed as the debate-stifling bludgeon that it is. So naturally, you won't.
By the way, Mr. Ahmed, if anti-Islam sentiment is so rampant in your community, how did you manage to get elected to the city council?
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