In an absolutely infuriating story out of the town of Dearborn, Michigan, the town’s mayor has refused to heed their complaints and shut down the mosque’s call to prayer, which comes at 5:30 in the morning, along with other times during the day, and is a great annoyance to residents who don’t want to be bombarded with such messages in the early hours of the morning.
As background, Dearborn was once best known as being the wonderful town in which Ford Motors was headquartered. While Ford is still there, the town has since become known as the locus of Muslim, particularly Somali, immigration in Michigan, something that has upset many long-time residents of the town, who do not appreciate how its character is changing.
Such exploded into public view with the matter of the 5:30 am calls to prayer blasted by the mosque, as the non-Muslim residents argue that the call to prayer violates the noise ordinance and should be shut down. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud refused to agree, however, saying that the loud noise in the wee hours of the morning is perfectly fine.
Mayor Hammoud said as much when he discussed the complaints directed his way and the mosque’s way over the call to prayer on the November 3 episode of the “Not From Here” podcast. During that discussion, the mayor said he wouldn’t use the noise ordinance to shut down the grating morning message.
Commenting on the matter, he said that it is a “serious concern,” telling host Jaafar Issa, “I would tell you is, you know, those complaining about the call to prayer, I mean it’s a very, very few, you still want to respect the wishes and, if you have a serious concern, I have to uphold the law across all boards.”
Continuing, the mayor insisted that the mosque’s call to prayer is under the decibel limit allowed by the ordinance, and thus is fine and “not an issue” for him or the town. He said, “But we’ve done decibel readings at these mosques, all within threshold, all within legal limit. And so for me, it’s not an issue.”
Then, using the Constitution to defend bombarding Dearborn residents with a Muslim call to prayer before the rising of the sun, he insisted, “We also have to uphold our constitutional rights to freedom of religion. And I would say this, you know, that’s the thing. I’m saying this as a Muslim.”
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Adding to that, he suggested that people only cared then (the interview was recorded before the 2025 elections) because of the election season. He said, “People, of course, are going to say this is a call to prayer, but like, you know, why are these complaints just coming forward now?” Jaafar Issa remarked, “Yeah, elections are coming up.” Mayor Hammoud replied, “Call to prayer has been happening since the 1970s in Dearborn.”
Watch the mayor here:
Dearborn resident Andrea Unger told Fox News, “I have heard a lot of people say, ‘I’m glad you said something,’ because people are afraid they’ll get called names like ‘Islamophobic,’ like our mayor [Abdullah H. Hammoud] called [Dearborn resident and Christian minister] Ted Barham, because you disagree. We’re not Islamophobic, we’re not anti-Muslim, we are not anti-Jewish. We just want to live in the community that it’s always been [before] something changed two years ago to allow this.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video