Regina Mosque’s Public Adhan Put on Hold
The mosque, Regina City Jamia Masjid, continues to receive mixed reactions from people in the city about broadcasting the adhan over the noon hour on Fridays.
It obtained a permit allowing it to broadcast the three-minute call over rooftop speakers, once a week.
City police have said the permit is in place until July 10, when it will be reviewed by police and city officials.
The call was meant to play over the speakers on Friday, but the mosque's director, M. Anisur Rahaman, said it has been put it on hold due to threats that were received after the first broadcast.
After seeing online threats, people in the Muslim community in Regina asked that the mosque pause the broadcast, Rahaman said at a news conference on Friday.
"What they are saying is they are not feeling safe as a minority … they're thinking that we need more dialogue to understand what exactly are the problems that can happen in the future. Because the social media and negative comments we have received … are not like very positive as a Muslim," he said.
Rahaman said he will put out surveys to local businesses and organizations around the mosque.
"If we see that for the greater community, like this is like not bringing a positive impact for the Muslim community, then we would also prefer not to continue this because we also would respect the greater Muslim community as well as we also respect the non-Muslims," he said.
Canada has freedom of religion, he noted.
"We are not here like to dominate anything, right … We are here to follow our religion. So there are other religions also, right? And we have a religion of freedom in Canada, right? We are free to follow our own religion."
Source: CBC.ca
