I think the problem here is historical Christian favoritism by so-called infidels. To review--in US, church bells became a thing in colonial settlements centuries ago to call people to prayer. In many places, including Minneapolis, church bell usage has continued, sometimes as a tradition, like, "aw, how cute" or "quaint." Towns may have their historic cred, too, linked to their 1700's or 1800's church bell still ringing at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 6pm, every hour, every fifteen minutes, or whatever.
You know, there will be a "yabut it's not when people are trying to sleep," but that isn't true. People sleep at different times. People work graveyard shifts. Even if not, 6am is earlier than many town noise ordinances and certainly every hour or 15 minutes is a noise problem. The principle here is alleged to be freedom _from_ religion. Do non-religious or non-Christians deserve freedom from noise pollution of Christians? Yes, but the kind of people complaining have chosen to tolerate it, like In God We Trust on coins or God in the pledge. Not enough people stood against it.
So, this created a precedent and a perception of bias, if not, outright actual bias. Only now once the Somalis want to make noise following their religious traditions, some people in far away places are like, "no you have to do it in the same time frame as Christians." But some Christian bells ring every hour...more common is 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. Certainly many people are asleep at 6am.
Here's a UK example of problems of Christian bell ringing:
A row has erupted over a church clock in Mayfield, East Sussex, which chimes every 15 minutes - after a couple used an iPhone app to discover it was disturbing their sleep.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Germany:
Switzerland:
Swiss church bells tell time, call people to prayer, and irritate some – leading to disputes over whether they should be silenced.
www.swissinfo.ch
Malta:
A petition has been launched to save Qormi’s church bells after a family complained about the bell’s ringing throughout the night. At least one family requested that the bells of the Collegiate Church of St George stop ringing between 10pm and 6am – and people within the parish had strong...
lovinmalta.com
Pennsylvania:
Perhaps the new evangelization begins with such small gestures as the ringing of church bells.
www.firstthings.com
Texas:
• Denomination: Catholic
www.victoriaadvocate.com
Illinois:
Have you ever wondered about the many bells of St. John Cantius? This in-depth article shares the history & more.
www.cantius.org
Searching for anecdotes in google, you can find many in the US. Where was the national outrage?
So, that means this sudden interest in religious noise pollution lacks credibility. But it's worse...because we've chosen to tolerate Christians we can't just suddenly start micro-raging about the darkies' religious noise. That's discrimination. Likely, that's the issue that some on the city council faced who considered opposition: either allow the Muslims to have their traditional religious summons, too, or get rid of noise pollution for everyone. For those who hadn't thought about opposing the change, they probably noted how Jewish and Christian leadership in Minneapolis were all in favor of the noise ordinance change.
If you are still micro-raging over this thing a thousand miles away because Teh Somalis!!!!11!, you can always ask the Church of Satan to start doing their calls to prayer, too. That will certainly increase opposition.
It also has the unintended consequence of making people resent you and your fucked up religion (even more than they already do). If you want your neighbors to respect you and your way of life, start by respecting them.
