REGINA — The scheduled loudspeaker broadcast of the Islamic call to prayer was cancelled on Friday, amidst a variety of responses from Regina residents.On Friday June 19, the Regina City Jamia Masjid broadcast the Adhan, or Islamic call to prayer in a sound test of their loudspeakers. A second broadcast call was slated for noon on June 26, but it did not take place. M Anisur Rahaman, director of the mosque, explained in a press conference that after receiving some negative feedback and after conferring with fellow Muslims in the city, they decided not to hold the call to prayer. .They hope to do so in the future, depending on how discussions go with the community, fellow Muslims, Regina City Police, and City Council.The Western Standard approached those outside the mosque for their opinions on the Adhan.Ron English, visiting from Moose Jaw said, "I don't like it," adding, "I think that they should, you know, kind of assimilate, or at least, if they don't want to assimilate, don't push it, right?"Jamal Ismail, a worshipper at the local mosque, is a second-generation Canadian of Kenyan descent. He said hearing the Adhan in Regina "means a lot.""That is bringing us Muslims to come to pray, which is good. And it's not that it happens every day, it's not that it happens every hour of the day, only once a week for two, three minutes," he said, likening it to church bells or Jewish calls to prayer.Ismail said he expected that public backlash over the Adhan would lead to temporary noise permits not being renewed."You got all these people here causing divisions...because it's more bad than good coming out of this now, which is not good," said Ismail. "It's supposed to be something of good that's supposed to come out of this, not backlash that people that are not even religious themselves want to give their two cents about it, because it's Islam that's being targeted."William Kay, a nearby resident and atheist, also compared the Adhan to church bells. "Those bells do get annoying if you live downtown. Some days they ring them all day," Kay said, adding the same policy has to apply "across the board," even if he is "not a fan of Islam in any sense.".Dennis Peterson views the broadcast as making a statement, not meeting a practical need. "This doesn't happen to be the residential area for Muslims, right? You can ring these bells, but they live in places like Harbor Land. They're not hearing it. This is a form of intimidation, is what it is. None of them live within the call of these things," he said.Peterson said church bells were "the tradition of this country" that also founded and built it. By contrast, he viewed the Islamic broadcast as not "right." He was also concerned the calls wouldn't be limited to once per week. "Friday now, next thing you know, it'll be two or three days, and then it'll be five times a day. The next steps you can see it anywhere, it's in New York, it's in various places where all of a sudden they'll bring their mats out and block a whole street off, and they just take over."Darrell Kaczynski had similar concerns, calling the broadcast an assertion of "power overpowering the Catholic Church" as Muslims sought to extend their influence."It's not residential, it's commercial, because they know that at noon a lot of people work downtown, so they have a bigger impact here," he said. "This is their first initial step, because once you say agree to...open speakers, the next phase is have an open prayer.".The mosque is kiddy-corner from St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral. Its priest, the Reverend Mike Sinclair, said he thinks the call to prayer is "fantastic.""I have no problem sharing space downtown with a faith community. We all exist wonderfully under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which allows free expression of religion inward and outward. So we're happy to enable this downtown sharing space and sharing the work."Sinclair said his church is the second oldest in Regina and has endured many changes downtown."The one that has been the least welcome is actually hearing ambulances eight or nine times a day, dealing with opioid overdoses, and I don't see people jumping up and down over that noise that is constant down here. So, if we have a problem with the noise that a religious community is making, I think we need to look at why we have a problem with that. I personally don't," he said.
