Hamtramck, Michigan is a small town that is completely surrounded by Detroit. Like Detroit, it is becoming increasingly diverse - and that means an increasing Muslim population. Now the Bangladeshi al-Islah mosque has requested that they be allowed to broadcast calls to prayer in Arabic, five times a day as per Islamic tradition. It is expected that the resolution approving it will pass easily - but the suggestion has brought out local Christian bigots in droves.

According to Al-Jazeraa:

"I object to the content of the Arabic call to prayer…" said Hamtramck native Bob Golen. "A US citizen should not be subjected to the tenets of someone else's religion." Abd Allah al-Ghazali, a local businessman, said he and other Muslims "are citizens of this country, too." When al-Ghazali recited the call to prayer in Arabic, some in the crowd shouted "talk American" and "speak English."

A Muslim physician walked out the hearing shaking his head and said, "I never knew they hated us so much." Another local, Gabriel al-Aziz, said he was "blown away by the level of intolerance I see here".

J. Grant Swank, Jr. writes for MichNews:

I guess the Mafia call to prayer will be next. ... Oh well, so much for insanity in liberal, lamebrain America. It won’t be long till Muslim murderers global will take over the nation. Give it a few years at most; maybe not even that. Don’t we know from past experience that when the devil walks in, he always talks smoothly and with a kiss, as in Judas Iscariot, as in handsome serpent in the Garden?

Real truth is that there is nothing peaceful in the Koran on which Islam is based. Just take a look at the New Iraq. Read the blood passages of the Koran... Take a look at the Muslim clerics and see if you can find a peace branch among them. Not. There are a few Christians who protested, forewarning neighbors that this could be the start of something horrific, as in blood letting, as in seeking to do away with the "infidels," that is, non-Muslims, as in Middle East mayhem and murder, as is in New Iraq bombing by suicide tenders, as in Islamic enthusiasts who profile as clerics while in fact are murder pushers maximum.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

On Election Day in 1999, members of a residents group questioned would-be voters of Middle Eastern or Asian appearance on their eligibility to vote. In response to complaints of discrimination, the Justice Department sent monitors during local elections in 2001.

Joanne Golen, a lifelong Hamtramck resident, said she finds the content of the call to prayer offensive. "It says Allah is the one and only God. I am Christian. My God is Jesus Christ. That is my only objection--that I have to listen to a God other than the one I believe in praised five times a day,'' said Golen, 68. Caroline Zarski, 81, said allowing the call would put Islam above other religions.

Chad Groening writes in Agape Press:

Some Christian residents, like Joanne Golen, resent the city allowing Muslims to impose their religion on everybody else. Golen feels her rights are being violated. "Allah is not my god -- my God is Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God," she says. "And I feel it's against my constitutional rights to have to hear this at sunrise, four more times at sunset, which may be ten o'clock, blaring in my ears, telling me about their god."

Golen considers it offensive for her and other Christians to have to hear chants from a mosque. "I do not impose Jesus on them because He's quiet," the Hamtramck resident says. "Jesus calls in a quiet, gentle voice -- He doesn't have to blare over a PA system to call His followers. "We know when it's time to go to church; we pray constantly -- we don't need a call to prayer. My life is a prayer, and I resent this."

If people were to simply argue that the prayers would be louder than church bells, then they might have a case that Muslims were being treated better than other religions. So long as church bells ring, however, and the prayers aren't louder than the bells, then there isn't much of a case.

Instead of making reasonable arguments, however, the people are being much more honest with their feelings: they actually think that it is against their Constitutional rights to have to be faced with Islam. That sounds a lot like... a demand for freedom from religion. Not just that, but it's a freedom from religion like what the Christian Right claims atheists ask for, even though we don't. Talk about hypocrisy. Here we have right-wing Christians demanding that religion be removed from public.

Update: the resolution passed, unanimously!

Read More:

• Religious Right
• Christian Nationalism
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry
• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101