New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces a new NYPD initiative to support and facilitate the Islamic call to public prayer at regularly prescribed times each Friday and during the holy month of Ramadan, at City Hall on August 29, 2023. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Muslims can now broadcast calls to prayer, adhan, on Fridays and at sunset during the holy month of Ramadan in New York City through loudspeakers without having to seek permission from the city's local authorities, announced the city’s mayor.
"Today we are cutting red tape and saying clearly that if you are a mosque or a house of worship of any kind, you do not have to apply for a permit to amplify your call to Friday prayer,” Adams said on Tuesday while surrounded by a number of Muslim men and women inside the New York City municipality.
"You are free to live your faith in New York City.”
The announcement has sparked joy among NYC’s some 800,000 Muslim population.
“This is the constitutional right as American citizen,” Muhammad Shahidullah, a Muslim resident of New York City, told Rudaw’s Sinan Tuncdemir, describing the decision as "a huge historical announcement to practice our faith our own way."
Sheikh Musa Drommeh, a Friday sermon giver in NYC also hailed the announcement as a "huge milestone.”
According to the New York Police Department guidance, mosques can now broadcast the call to prayer on Fridays between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm, and at sunset during Ramadhan.
The call to prayer is usually broadcast publicly over speakers that summon members of the Muslim faith for prayer.
There were 285 mosques in New York City in 2015, according to a report from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, adding that Muslims made up around nine percent of New York City's population in 2016.
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