Stockholm, Sweden, May 17, 2018 / 15:54 pm
A town in southern Sweden granted permission this week to allow Islamic calls to prayer for the local mosque – a move some are calling controversial in light of the town's previous denial of the use of bells by the Catholic parish.
Local police approved the mosque's adhan – or call to worship – in the town of Vaxjo, more than 250 miles southwest of Stockholm, on Tuesday. The May 15 permit requires that the Islamic call to prayer, which is recited by the muezzin, does not exceed a certain level of decibels, so as not to disturb residents, and will take place every Friday for almost four minutes.
The permit will be valid for one year.
The allowance has drawn questions from the local Catholic church, St. Michael's, whose pastor Fr. Ingvar Fogelqvist said that previous requests to ring the church bells were denied in both the 1990s and the 2000s. The Catholic church is less than a mile from Vaxjo's mosque.