The Gelsenkirchen city administration has granted the Turkish-Islamic mosque congregation in the Hassel district a special permit for the daily muezzin call. The regulation applies during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, reported the broadcaster WDR.
The call will be heard for five minutes each evening until May the 12th, the municipality said in a letter distributed in the neighbourhood and posted on Facebook. “The Islamic call to prayer is to remind Muslims to break their fast. We want to stand by our Muslim fellow citizens, give them comfort and show a sign of solidarity,” the writing said.
In this case, the muezzin call is to replace the common prayer, which is cancelled because of the pandemic. According to WDR, there will be no such arrangements for the mosques in other Gelsenkirchen districts.
There has been a dispute about the muezzin call in the city of the Ruhr region for months. At the beginning of February, the Greens had campaigned for it to be sounded daily during the Corona pandemic. A motion by the AfD faction against this failed in the city council.