OSLO, Norway -- The Norwegian capital, solving a tangle over religious freedom in the Christian-dominated nation, has decided to let Muslims broadcast prayer calls for the first time while allowing atheists to shout, "God does not exist."
Under a ruling by a council for eastern Oslo, a mosque will be allowed to use a loudspeaker to broadcast a prayer call into the streets for three minutes every Friday, the Muslim holy day.The volume of the broadcast must not exceed 60 decibels.
The Atheist Society in the same part of the capital, which has a high population of immigrants, will also be allowed to use a megaphone to invite members to meetings from a rooftop once a week, including the call: "God does not exist."
"We strongly suspect that the atheists applied to shout out their opinions because they were provoked by the applications from the World Islamic Mission," said Jan Willy Lyng, a Labor member of the local Oslo council.
"To give fair treatment, we had to say 'yes', but I don't think these atheists actually will climb on the roof and shout too often," he told Reuters.
Until now, the only legal prayer calls in Norway is the ringing of church bells. Christianity is the state religion in Norway.
The wailing call to prayer, or azzan, is recited five times daily in mosques in Moslem countries.