Norway party to seek ban on Islamic call to prayer

From the Norwegian edition of The Local 
Photograph Oslo’s Jamaat Ahle Sunnat mosque which does not at present issue the call to prayer. Note the gallery around the prominent minaret should they decide to do so. 

Norway’s anti-immigration Progress Party, part of the ruling two-party coalition, is set to vote on banning the Muslim call to prayer in Norway when it meets for its national meeting this weekend. The proposal is aimed to counter alleged plans by some mosques in Norway to begin issuing the Islamic call to worship, as has been allowed at two mosques in neighbouring Sweden. 

“In several places in the country have now established regulations under which mosques have permission to issue the call to prayer over loudspeakers,” claims the local party in Buskerud county, west of Oslo, which made the proposal.  “A great many people perceive this as annoying and inappropriate. In Norway we have freedom of religion, which should also include the right not to be exposed to public calls to prayer.” 

The party’s immigration policy spokesman, Jon Helgheim told the Vårt Land newspaper that he was not concerned with whether the law was permissible under the European Convention on Human Rights. 

“I don’t give a toss what human rights provisions say in this case,” he said. “What I care about is that people get peace and quiet in their neighbourhoods, and that means not being disturbed by the call to prayer. If there are conflicting provisions in the Convention on Human Rights, I simply don’t care, because it’s completely stupid.”