Sweden, Islam, and the Call to Prayer

by Hugh Fitzgerald

In Sweden, Muslims have been demonstrating their menacing power. They have already managed to establish 61 No-Go zones, lawless areas where the Swedish government’s writ does not fully run. Firemen, sanitation men, and civil servants are now afraid to enter these Muslim-populated and Muslim-run zones without police escorts, while the police themselves do not enter these areas except in force. In June 2017, Sweden’s National Police Commissioner, Dan Eliasson, spoke on national television and pleaded for assistance: “Help us, help us!,” he said, while warning that Swedish police forces could not uphold the law by themselves in the face of aggressive and hostile Muslims; enforcing the rule of law would require greater support from all segments of Swedish society, and especially from the media, so that the police would no longer be cowed by the reflexive charges of “racism” and “islamophobia” that until now have prevented them from acting with the necessary firmness. Things have gotten so bad that even in 2016, 80% of the Swedish police said they were thinking of quitting their jobs; as of now, more than a thousand police officers quit every year.

A Swedish research expert regarding destabilized countries, Johan Patrik Engellau, has been working with organizations such as the UN and others that operate in crisis areas. He never expected to witness such a catastrophic breakdown of civil society in his own country:

“I’m afraid it is the end for the well-organized, decent and egalitarian Sweden we have known up to now. Personally, I would not be surprised if a form of civil war occurs. In some places, the civil war has probably already begun.”

Similar grim tidings come from the police chief of Stockholm:

The Swedish state has lost large areas to armed Islamist militias. Police chief Lars Alversjø says that “There is lawlessness in parts of Stockholm (Sweden’s capital) now.” He also observed how “the legal system, which is a pillar in every democratic society, is collapsing in Sweden.”

And  a Swedish expert on terrorism is similarly pessimistic:

Per Magnus Ranstorp, a researcher into terrorism and radicalization at the Swedish National Defense College, notes: “In the worst areas, extremists have taken over. The whole sense of justice and peace are threatened by the fact that the police are breaking down and it’s only getting worse. Sweden is in a disastrous situation.”

The Swedish Security Service recently warned that the country is crawling with “thousands of Islamists” sharing Islamic State’s ideology. In many places, public servants (i.e., non-Islamic authorities) require police escort or protection.

And Swedish Muslims, pressing their advantage, have started to demand the right to use loudspeakers to broadcast the Call to Prayer. Mosques in Fittja, in Karlskrona (the permission was temporarily withdrawn, for procedural reasons, but will again be granted), and now in Växjö have been granted the right to use the loudspeakers every Friday.

That latest victory has only whet Muslim appetites for more such victories. Avdi Islami, the spokesman of Växjö’s Muslim Foundation, has asked mosques all over Sweden to do the same as in Växjö, and to apply for permission to broadcast the Call to Prayer. It is clear that he views the Muslim victory in three cities, including his own, as only the first step for Swedish Muslims, to be followed by similar victories for mosques all over Sweden. Once Muslims in Sweden have everywhere achieved the right to broadcast the Call to Prayer on Friday, does anyone think they will stop there? They will then present a new demand, that is, the right to broadcast the Call to Prayer not just on Friday, but every day, and five times a day, beginning before dawn and ending after sunset. There is no evidence so far that local Swedish authorities will have the courage to refuse.

The broadcasted Calls to Prayer are normally very loud — the Växjö Call to Prayer broadcast has been measured to hit 110 decibels. Some mosques have not one, but up to six loudspeakers, prepared to bray in every direction, but waiting for the government’s go-ahead. The earliest prayer is before sunrise, often between 4:30 and 5 a.m.; it obviously wakes non-Muslims up much earlier than they would like. The evening prayer, after sunset, while not as disruptive for adults, is likely to startle young children who have been put to bed and are trying to fall, or have just fallen, asleep. And throughout the day, the Call to Prayer is not, as Barack Obama famously called it, “one of the sweetest sounds in the world,” but for most non-Muslims, it remains an intrusive and raucous noise, the worst kind of noise pollution.

Furthermore, broadcasting through loudspeakers is not necessary. No Muslim in the West now has any need to be summoned by the shrill guttural broadcast of a muezzin’s Call to Prayer. Technology has changed everything. Now there are many hundreds of call-to-prayer apps. They have proven tremendously popular. You can find online within a few seconds the “100 best call-to-prayer apps” for Android, the “100 best call-to-prayer apps for iOS,” the call-to-prayer and time apps at Google Play. Your computer, your smartphone, your clock, your watch can all be programmed to summon you with the Call To Prayer. There are apps that can even let you know if there are fellow Muslims nearby with whom you can pray, since communal prayer is favored in Islam — in other words, apps that offer additional useful information that the muezzin’s Call to Prayer through a loudspeaker does not provide.

The reason why Muslims in Sweden are so intent on getting approval for broadcasting the Call to Prayer is not because they need it. No, it is because in the West the ability to impose this sound on the Kuffar has become a symbol of Islam triumphant. The very fact that such broadcasting inflicts aural suffering on non-Muslims, disrupting their sleep, makes its acceptance by the Swedish authorities all the more telling as a sign of Muslim power. It is not needed, in order to call Muslims to prayer; that call can be delivered, more accurately and efficiently, through many available apps. Muslims now carry their Call to Prayer reminders on their watches, their smartphones, their computers. The Call to Prayer broadcast from loudspeakers at the mosque, the method that the Muslims demand to have accepted, even though it is no longer necessary, tells the Swedes that we, the Muslims, are here to stay, that you cannot be rid of us, that sooner or later you will surrender to our demands, and if we discommode you with what you unfeelingly call “noise pollution,” that’s just too bad.

That is exactly why the Swedish authorities should refuse these demands for the Call to Prayer to be broadcast seven days a week. And, their spines stiffened, they should then reconsider their decision in those localities where the Call to Prayer has been granted for Friday alone.

The three arguments against allowing the muezzin to broadcast the Call to Prayer by means of loudspeakers affixed to the mosque are clear:

First, the Call to Prayer, if broadcast through loudspeakers, is exceedingly loud, and many non-Muslims, impervious to its supposed charms, find the Arabic harsh and guttural. It is inflicted on Muslim and non-Muslim alike for three long minutes, during what should be the normal time for sleep. The predawn prayer is particularly disruptive; the evening prayer can keep children — depending on their bedtime — from falling asleep, or may wake them just after they have fallen asleep. Such damage to sleep patterns can be harmful to health.

Second, the Call to Prayer no longer needs to be broadcast far and wide to Muslims.Technology has rendered that unnecessary. Now the Call to Prayer can be delivered directly to the individual Believer, through hundreds of available apps on computers, smartphones, clocks, watches, apps at least as accurate and reliable as any muezzin’s call, and that can include additional helpful information.

Third, the symbolic significance of the Call to Prayer being broadcast in non-Muslim countries, such as Sweden, should be clear. Even if not needed, even if superseded in efficacy and reach by apps, Muslims demand the public broadcasting of the Islamic Call to Prayer precisely because it demonstrates, even flaunts, the power of Muslims, and of Islam. It inflicts pain on non-Muslims, and tells them that Muslims are present, that they are here to stay, and that their demands, however disturbing or unsettling to non-Muslims, will prevail.

Any one of these three would be reason enough, in a well-run polity, to turn down the requests for broadcasting the Muslim Call to Prayer. But Sweden is no longer a well-run polity; it is, rather, a country which has been suddenly overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants; there are now 830,000 Muslims, who constitute 8.3% of the total population of 10 million in Sweden, the largest percentage for any European country. The 61 No-Go areas testify to the fact that Swedish authority is being challenged and undermined by an enemy within. Swedes seem too fearful to stand fast, much less to push determinedly back, which is why Dan Eliasson, the Commissioner of Police in Sweden, plaintively asked the public for help (“Help us! Help us!”), and why 80% of Swedish police have considered quitting. Too many Swedes, including the politicians and the police, are afraid of being accused of “racism” and “Islamophobia.”

This call-to-prayer broadcasting business provides an opportunity to display a firmness toward Muslims that has so far been lacking in Sweden, and thereby to signal a change in Swedish attitudes. The government should insist on banning all public broadcasts of the Call to Prayer, even where previously granted, noting as part of its decision that the prayer times are now readily available through apps, and Muslims have no need to any longer rely on a muezzin and loudspeakers. There is no justification for continuing to interrupt the sleep of Infidels. It’s even a public health matter.

Will Muslims be infuriated? Of course they will. They’ve gotten away with so much in Sweden that any sign of spine in Stockholm will come as a shock and an affront. Firmness now, over a matter that should be recognized as not about religious rights, but about power, in a contest of wills between aggressive Muslim migrants and the indigenous non-Muslims, might help the Swedes to recover not just their footing, but their country.

First published in Jihad Watch.