Calls to Prayer & Beckons to Subway

I guess the sign hanging above the drywall-covered entrance to the future location of Subway was semi-accurate in saying, "Coming Soon." I really didn't expect to see Subway open until sometime next semester, but yesterday was the surprise grand opening! I never thought I would be this excited about an American store opening up. It's almost as exciting as when Wadsworth got a Wal-Mart several years ago. So for the last 3 meals, I've had BBQ chicken sandwiches. I'm pretty sure any BBQ food is the food I miss the most. It's been a good 3 days...even though it is finals week.

On a wholly different note, did you read a few weeks ago about how the Swiss voted to ban the building of minarets on mosques? If not, then here is a link to the article.

Today I read an interesting article on Bloomberg about how Christians in Islamic countries face many restrictions on building churches, amongst other things. You can read the whole article here. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

While Muslim leaders criticized the Nov. 29 vote in Switzerland that banned construction of minarets, they don’t support Christians who want to build churches in some Islamic countries. Restrictions in Egypt have exacerbated sectarian violence and discrimination, say Copts, a 2,000 year old denomination that comprises about 10 percent of the population...

...“The decision of the Swiss people stood to be interpreted as xenophobic, prejudiced, discriminative and against the universal human-rights values,” said the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which represents 57 Muslim-majority nations.

Members include Saudi Arabia, where non-Muslims are arrested for worshipping privately; Maldives, the Indian Ocean atoll where citizenship is reserved for Muslims; Libya, which limits churches to one per denomination in cities; and Iran, where conversion from Islam is punished by death, according to a 2009 U.S. State Department report on religious freedom.

After thinking about these two articles, I've decided that I disagree with the Swiss decision; mosques should be allowed to build minarets. If you read the NY Times articles, you'll notice that it says that none of the minarets are actually used to conduct the call to prayer (which happens 5 times a day, starting very early in the morning). This is like telling a church that they can't put a cross on a steeple. It just doesn't make sense.

Actually using the minaret as a means of calling people to prayer is a different story (in a democratic society). A common argument goes something like this, "Well, churches are able to ring church bells, so why shouldn't mosques be able to perform the call to prayer?" But I think this argument holds little water. I think it would be difficult to argue that the ringing of church bells has any theological or religious significance. Most church bells are used as a means of marking time; they have no religious connotations. The same can't be said of an Islamic call to prayer.

If churches wanted to have a preacher recite the Lord's Prayer over a loudspeaker for the surrounding people to hear several times every day, then this would be a problem politically. The same is true for minarets calling people to prayer in democratic societies. Therefore, while I think that the Swiss made a mistake in banning minarets, I hold that the minarets should not be used to call people to prayer.

Here is an example of what the call to prayer is like in Cairo: