A small city in Sweden, Västerås, will be the first to allow Swedish Muslims to use a Minaret in the traditional sense, calling out to prayer five times a day.The Minaret they will be using does not belong to the Mosque. Instead they will be using the tower of the city hall (which actually looks like a Mosque), previously home to ringing bells that apparently annoyed the people living there.
5 times a day as of yesterday April 1st, Imam Mahmut Ongun will be calling to prayer.
The City Council of Västerås, led by Roger Haddad feels that the 5 calls to prayer a day will be a refreshing change for the inhabitants of Västerås.
Right... this is what you could read and listen to on the Swedish Radio website yesterday, April 1st. Swedish Muslims are now confused over whether this article is in fact an April fools joke or if it is true. Well how about that people?
12 comments:
If thats a joke, it sure is a lousy one!
If it's an April fools' joke, it's not a very good one. If it's true, it's pretty amazing. I would imagine there are quite a few muslims in Vasteras, and it's not a "small" town, it's something like the fourth of fifth largest in Sweden I believe. Far from "small" for sure ;-)
Radha, yes I admit I have heard better jokes but well, a lot points to it being a joke.
Emirates Mac, welcome! Yes lol indeed, I suppose it isn't that small, it's the fourth largest city, although everything is relative. I mean it has barely a million citizens, still I guess in a Swedish context it's pretty large. Change duely noted :)
Is it allowed that the adhan be called from a place that is not a mosque?
It's a sick joke if it is that.
Sounds like an irresponsible act on the part of a news organization, its these types of jokes that create misunderstanding. So did you find out if this was a news story or an april fool day prank.
Nzm, the adhaan can in principle be called out anywhere. Doesn't necesserily have to be a mosque. Either way like you said, it's a distasteful joke. people here are quite "shocked".
OG, it seems it was a joke. And the problem is they haven't written any note on their website saying it was a joke. They basically imply by that, that it would be such an impossibility for muslims to have a working minaret that pople would figure it out themselves. Tragic.
Hi Shaykhspeara,
I have not visited your blog in a while. Browsing your blog it seems that you did some interesting travels meanwhile. About the Mosque, if it is a joke, it is usual in northern Europe to do such jokes. Last summer, a serious Belgian news program announced the separation of the Flandres from the rest of belgium. It caused a great panic...
Hey sophia! Good to have you here :)
Yeah I know they always joke but I have to say this was a bit of a tasteless joke. Still that is part of being a "larger" group of society, one has to be up for jokes.
Gees, I can imagine the people in Belgium freaking out!
OG, it's confirmed, it was an april fools joke.
oh man, sad, isn't it?
Well, we had our hopes up Koonj. What can you do ey? :)
that is a distasteful joke if i've seen one!
Well it seems it came and went with little drama, which is good.
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