Dearborn Residents Demand City Enforcement of Noise Ordinances Over Mosque Call to Prayer

By The Blogging Hounds In Dearborn, Michigan, a city long celebrated for its diversity, a growing group of residents is pushing back against what they describe as an intrusive and disruptive call to prayer broadcast from a local mosque. The complaints highlight a tension between religious expression and the rights of citizens to peace and…

By The Blogging Hounds

In Dearborn, Michigan, a city long celebrated for its diversity, a growing group of residents is pushing back against what they describe as an intrusive and disruptive call to prayer broadcast from a local mosque. The complaints highlight a tension between religious expression and the rights of citizens to peace and quiet in their homes.

Loudspeakers Overreach Into Homes

Longtime resident Andrea Unger, who has lived in Dearborn for 40 years, has emerged as the community’s leading voice. Unger says the Islamic Institute of Knowledge, located just a quarter-mile from her home, broadcasts the call to prayer multiple times daily—sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m.—for sessions lasting up to five minutes. She recorded the calls for 30 consecutive days and found noise levels consistently exceeding 70 decibels, well above the city’s limit of 60 decibels during the day.

“Our city ordinance does not permit unusual, annoying sounds for five minutes or longer, but the mosque continues to violate our privacy inside our home daily,” Unger told Fox News Digital. “It’s not like going down to the park and people will ask you about God or someone comes to your door. This is coming into your home, and you have no choice.”

Petition for Enforcement

At a September 23 city council meeting, Unger presented a petition signed by 40 neighbors urging enforcement of Dearborn’s noise ordinance, which prohibits “any unreasonably loud, disturbing, unusual or unnecessary noise which annoys, disturbs, injures, or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others within the limits of the city.”

Unger emphasized that the concerns are about fairness, not religion. “The Supreme Court has stated that no public school may have a specific prayer to a specific God. Yet this prayer to Allah is prayed on loudspeakers over our school grounds and our playgrounds daily. There is no atheist, Christian, Jewish, Catholic, or other group that is allowed to use loudspeakers to blast a five-minute prayer into the homes of people in the East Dearborn community,” she said.

Many residents, she notes, are hesitant to speak up out of fear of being labeled anti-Muslim or “Islamophobic.” “We’re not Islamophobic, we’re not anti-Muslim, we are not anti-Jewish. We just want to live in the community that it’s always been before something changed two years ago to allow this,” Unger added.

City Response

City Council President Mike Sareini acknowledged the complaints and said police investigations had already uncovered violations of the ordinance. “It’s not legal, nor do we support it,” Sareini said, noting he awaited a comprehensive report from the police chief before taking further action.

Not all mosques in Dearborn have resisted community feedback. Nabeel Bahalwan, director of the Dearborn Community Center, explained that his facility voluntarily turned off its microphone for the call to prayer until the matter is resolved. “We always respect our neighbors,” he said.

Attempts to reach the Islamic Institute of Knowledge for comment were unsuccessful, and both the Dearborn police department and city council declined to provide further statements.

A Broader Context

The noise dispute comes amid ongoing cultural tensions in Dearborn. In September, Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud labeled Christian minister Ted Barham a “racist,” “bigot,” and “Islamophobe” after Barham objected to street signs honoring a controversial Islamic figure. Incidents like this underscore the challenges of balancing religious expression with the rights of residents and maintaining civic fairness in one of America’s most diverse cities.

For many Dearborn residents, the issue is simple: equitable enforcement of community standards protects everyone, regardless of faith. They are asking the city to uphold the law and ensure that neighborhood peace and the rights of all citizens are respected.

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