Germany: Muslims of Cologne show happiness over allowing Call to prayer in Grand Mosque through loudspeakers

Allowing the Muslim call to prayer in the Cologne Grand Mosque was not a normal thing for the Muslims, especially immigrants, as they can now practice Friday prayers.

Worshipers flocked to the mosque and they were keen to take memorial photos in front of the mosque, with the Ottoman architectural style, where the call to prayer is now freely sounded through the loudspeaker.

“A very positive step is that we are allowed to hear the muezzin’s voice, I feel as if I am praying in my country,” said the young man, Muhammad Shabana, after he had performed prayer in the mosque.

The call to prayer in most German mosques is limited to an internal radio broadcast in the mosque.

 The call to prayer was raised for the first time at the Cologne Central Mosque, in mid-October, after an agreement with Cologne city officials allowed the mosque to raise the call to prayer via loudspeakers only on Fridays.

About 120,000 Muslims live in Cologne, or 12% of the city’s population, while their number in the capital, Berlin, ranges between 250,000 and 300,000 Muslims, or about 9% of the population.