Mosque communities in Cologne have recently been able to apply for approval of a muezzin call.
Nobody has done that before.
Nevertheless, there are warning voices.
Cologne - The city of Cologne has not received any applications for approval of muezzin calls even after a week.
A spokeswoman for the city said on Friday that three mosque communities had expressed interest and obtained information, but had not yet made an application.
Muezzin calls can be requested in Cologne since October 8th.
If the application is approved, mosque congregations can call their believers to Friday midday prayer.
The call to prayer may only be made between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. and for a maximum of five minutes.
The volume is set depending on the location of the mosque.
In addition, the respective mosque community must inform the neighborhood in good time with flyers and name a contact person who can answer questions or receive complaints.
In its initiative, the city of Cologne refers to the freedom of religious practice enshrined in the Basic Law.
While in Christian churches the bells are rung to call the believers to worship, in the mosques of Muslim denominations it is the calls of the muezzin that serve this purpose.
Mayor Henriette Reker recalled that many Muslims were born in Cologne and are an integral part of urban society. "Anyone who doubts this is questioning Cologne's identity and our peaceful coexistence," said the non-party politician.
The Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD), Aiman Mazyek, welcomed the initiative. "Cologne is sending a sign of tolerance and diversity into the world," said Mazyek. The muezzin call is an integral part of Muslim prayer and has long been a matter of course in many European countries and also in the USA. This part of the faith should not be part of political debates, "otherwise you will play into the hands of extremists with an Islamophobic keyboard," warned Mazyek.
There is also criticism.
The main argument: The muezzin call could be understood as a show of power by controversial Muslim associations.
“This symbolic policy serves the wrong people,” wrote Lale Akgün, the former Islam commissioner of the SPD parliamentary group, on her Facebook page.
Because the Cologne Central Mosque in the Ehrenfeld district belongs to the Turkish-Islamic Union Ditib, which maintains close ties to the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The permission for the muezzin call from the Ehrenfeld mosque is a curtsey to Erdogan's political activities, including in Germany," criticized Akgün.
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The sociologist and publicist Necla Kelek ("The Strange Bride") told the German Press Agency that tolerance can only be invoked by those who adhere to the agreed social rules.
"If only men are invited to Friday prayers and women are only given a separate room, then an archaic model of society is lived there," criticized Kelek.
Outwardly tolerant speech is spoken in the mosques, but ultimately Islam is celebrated there as the only true religion.
"There the world is divided into believers and unbelievers, men and women," said Kelek.
"A patriarchal and not an open, democratic social order is preached there."
Kelek appealed to mosque clubs, associations and communities to refrain from calling to prayer on their own initiative.
“The mosques should rather be responsible places for the new, the modern,” she said.
The migrants should be able to pursue their faith there independently and without the tutelage of their countries of origin.
"This does not require a public muezzin call, but rather a debate among Muslims about how to make their religion compatible with democracy," demanded Kelek.
dpa