A German couple have won a landmark court victory to silence Islamic calls to prayer from a mosque almost a mile from their home.
A German couple have won a landmark court victory to silence Islamic calls to prayer from a mosque almost a mile from their home.
And the decision to stop the use of a loudspeaker being used to summon the faithful was not based on noise levels, but on its rightful place in a Christian community.
Authorities in the town of Oer-Erkenschwick in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia granted the local mosque the right to use the loudspeakers for Friday prayers in 2014.
The following year, Hans-Joachim Lehmann, 69, and his wife – who live nearly 1km (0.62miles) away, won an injunction.
A representative of the local council refused to revoke the permit and instead claimed ‘socio-critical and political motives’ were at play in the complaint.
Huseyin Turgut, a senior official with the affected mosque, said the court’s decision was disappointing.
‘The call to prayer lasts for two minutes, just around 1pm, but only on Fridays,’ he said.’
‘We’ve never had any complaints and we have German neighbours who are much closer – just 10 metres away.’
Anti-Muslim sentiment and support for anti-immigration policies are growing in many parts of Germany after the influx of well over a million migrants from Iraq, Syria and other mostly Muslim countries, beginning in 2015.
