The Muslim Call to Prayer: A Nuisance or a Necessity?

Certainly, every Bed-Stuy resident has heard it at some point:  "Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar" (Allah is Great).  It is the Adhan -- the Muslim call to prayer -- and five times a day, it pulses over a loudspeaker, penetrating the ears of anyone within four to five blocks of its source.

For the Muslim owners of nearby stores on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue, it signals closing time for an important religious observance. Others in the neighborhood call it a nuisance.

The call emanates from the , Arabic for  "the place of worship for the God-Consciousness," located at the corner of Bedford and Fulton Street. The mosque has been issuing the call to prayer since it was first founded.

Fidel Elmashi, a 45-year-old Catholic and street vendor who sells toys and trinkets across from the mosque said he has come to dread the call to prayer.  "I'll be doing something and I'll get a heart attack when it comes on the speakers," he said.

"They play that thing really loud and it gets annoying," said Osahar Omerid, a Christian student at the New York City College of Technology. "I live six bocks away and I can still hear it."

Beginning precisely at sunrise, five times a day every day, a male voice calls out to alert Muslims of the upcoming prayer service. But its sheer loudness upsets many residents and puts to test the neighborhood's tolerance of religious differences.

Adhan begins with Fagr, the morning prayer as early as 5:25 a.m., followed by Dhur in the early afternoon, Asr in the evening and Maghreb before sunset. It ends with Isha around 9 p.m.

The call commences half an hour before worship and lasts for one or two minutes. This gives Muslims enough time for Wudu, an ablution of the body, before the actual prayer service that lasts approximately 10 minutes.

Over at Sleepy's mattress store, the manager Quilisha Houston, a Christian, regularly explains to her customers about the call to prayer.

"At times, I have customers that are annoyed because they just don't know," she said. "Most customers are put off by it because they aren't from here. They don't know what's going on."

But that's not the way Muslism who live and work along Fulton Street view the ritual: "I grew up on it," said Uthman Abdul, 47, a practicing Muslim and EMT volunteer. "It's never been a disturbance or a nuisance."

Besides, many Muslim storeowners say, the Masjid At-Taqwa, built in 1981, helped create a safer neighborhood. When the mosque was first constructed, Fulton Street between Bedford and Franklin Avenues was littered with crime, drugs and violence, said Assistant Imam Osman Adam. 

The mosque worked closely with the 79th police precinct to clean up the neighborhood, said Maryam Leveille, the mosque secretary.  "It's way safer now."

According to Idris Conry, 58, owner of Abu's Homestyle Bakery, the mosque's presence did make streets safer, which encouraged commercial development and a more vibrant local economy.

"Look at the history, " said Conry. "We have the right to a call to prayer."

But it's not just Muslims who appreciate the calling.

"It's beautiful," said Marqus Balk, 28, a practicing Christian. "It is loud, but it's just tradition. Because there's traffic and a lot of people, it has to be loud."

For 50-year-old Collins George, a Catholic, it's about acceptance and religious tolerance: "They can pray. It's ok to pray."

"It's our religion," said Adam. "The churches have bells. Jews have horns. And we have call to prayer."

This story was written as part of a multimedia collaboration between the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and Patch.com.