Noise ordinances and common sense win out this time. But it might not be too long before non-Muslims will simply have to get used to being awakened before dawn during Ramadan. To complain about the noise would be “Islamophobic.” After all, remember that when the local authorities in Hamtramck, Michigan, voted to amend the noise ordinances to allow for the Islamic call to prayer over loudspeakers, Masud Khan, a local mosque official, said that the Muslims were going to broadcast the call to prayer over loudspeakers anyway, regardless of the outcome of the vote. No non-Muslim observers or analysts seemed interested in the implications of that.
“Giving Ramadan a Drumroll in Brooklyn at 4 A.M.,” by Kirk Semple for the New York Times, September 13 (thanks to Denise):
A few hours before dawn, when most New Yorkers are fast asleep, a middle-aged man rolls out of bed in Brooklyn, dons a billowy red outfit and matching turban, climbs into his Lincoln Town Car, drives 15 minutes, pulls out a big drum and — there on the sidewalk of a residential neighborhood — starts to play.
The man, Mohammad Boota, is a Ramadan drummer. Every morning during the holy month, which ends on Sept. 21, drummers stroll the streets of Muslim communities around the world, waking worshipers so they can eat a meal before the day’s fasting begins.
But New York City, renowned for welcoming all manner of cultural traditions, has limits to its hospitality. And so Mr. Boota, a Pakistani immigrant, has spent the past several years learning uncomfortable lessons about noise-complaint hot lines, American profanity and the particular crankiness of non-Muslims rousted from sleep at 3:30 a.m.
“Everywhere they complain,” he said. “People go, like, ‘What the hell? What you doing, man?’ They never know it’s Ramadan.”…
They never know it’s Ramadan? Well, they better get with it!