Muslim call to prayer allowed on loudspeakers in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – This spring, Minneapolis became the first large city in the United States to allow the Islamic call to prayer to be broadcast publicly on loudspeakers.

So far only one mosque is doing so, three times a day. But more of the city’s two dozen mosques are getting ready to start their own broadcasts.

They’re setting up rooftop sound systems and readying meetings to consult with neighbors, hoping to avoid the kind of backlash that has occurred elsewhere.

Minneapolis is home to a growing Muslim community, many of them refugees from war-torn Somalia.