Ilhan Omar is thrilled, and you know what that means: you should be, too. A cultural line has been crossed. According to the Star Tribune, “the Muslim call to prayer will be broadcast the traditional five times a day in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, beginning with the start of Ramadan this week and continuing through the end of the religious holiday in May. It will be the first time the call to prayer, commonly broadcast from mosques in Muslim nations, will be heard in Minnesota.”
This is only supposed to be for Ramadan, but let’s be serious. In today’s Minneapolis, in today’s paradise of multiculturalism, what are the chances that the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood will stop broadcasting the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, once Ramadan is over? About as good as the chances that Nancy Pelosi will endorse Trump and become his running mate.
Yet the implications of this broadcast call to prayer, beyond the expected hosannas from the usual proponents of globalism and multiculturalism, are ominous.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a friend and supporter of Ilhan Omar, is no doubt as happy as she is about this, as it demonstrates how “inclusive” his city is. And that’s wonderful, but when the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood broadcasts the Islamic call to prayer, what exactly is it broadcasting? The adhan, prayed in Arabic, repeats “Allahu akbar” six times, “I testify that there is no god but Allah” three times, and “I testify that Muhammad is Allah’s prophet” twice.
Dr. Gavin Ashenden, former chaplain to the British queen, who resigned his position in protest against a Qur’an reading in a Scottish church, observed that “the Muslim call to prayer is a dramatic piece of Islamic triumphalism. It proclaims Islam’s superiority over all other religions, and in so doing casts Jesus in the role of a charlatan and a liar. The Muslim god, Allah, is unknowable and has no son. Jesus was, therefore, a fraud in claiming He and the Father are one.”
Is the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis really wise to broadcast repeatedly a declaration of the superiority of Islam, a faith that directs its adherents to make war against Christians and other non-Muslims and subjugate them as inferiors under the hegemony of believers (cf. Qur’an 9:29)?
Is the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis wise to broadcast the cry “Allahu akbar,” beloved of jihad terrorists the world over? Chief 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta wrote this in his letter to himself before carrying out his jihad mission: “When the confrontation begins, strike like champions who do not want to go back to this world. Shout, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers.” This is why the Fort Hood jihad killer, Nidal Malik Hasan, shouted it as he shot thirteen Americans in November 2009, and why so many other jihadis have used it essentially as an announcement that non-Muslims are about to die.
Imam Sharif Mohamed of the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood said the broadcasting of the call to prayer would remind Muslims in the area that they “are not alone” during the coronavirus quarantine. “This is a reconnection, a calming, to give people assurance that we are with you. That’s what we try to achieve.”
In light of the use of so many elements of the adhan by jihad terrorists, however, this kind of reassurance “that we are with you” may not be as welcome as it is to the local Muslims among others who may hear it: victims of jihad violence and those who are aware of the aggressive and supremacist nature of the call to prayer.
But in Minneapolis today, any such concerns will be dismissed out of hand as “Islamophobic.” Jacob Frey and other Minneapolis officials are no doubt certain that Muslim communities in the city will be grateful, and will redouble their efforts to become loyal, productive citizens, marching together with non-Muslims in Minnesota into the glorious multicultural future. That’s the way it will work out. Isn’t it? No Muslims will take seriously the adhan’s declarations of Islamic superiority and heed the Qur’an’s calls to wage war against unbelievers. Will they? In multiculti Minneapolis today, such an idea is inconceivable!
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 19 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
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