A church in the Swedish town of Vaxjo has expressed plans to appeal an earlier decision to reject the ringing of bells following the recent approval of a mosque's call to prayer.
According to The Local, the town has twice rejected the request of the Catholic church Sankt Mikaels to ring church bells, saying it would disturb nearby residents.
The church's priest, Ingvar Fogelqvist, said that the church made the request to ring the small bell inside the church in the 1990s and in the early 2000s. He said that the bell "sounds good, but can't be heard far," The Local reported citing Smalandsposten.
Fogelqvist said that the church may appeal the earlier rejection following the recent approval of
the call to prayer in a nearby mosque.
"It is a matter of fairness and with the decision granting the mosque permission to do a call to prayer, we have discussed the possibility of applying again," the priest said, as reported by The Local, citing Swedish newspaper The Metro.
Last week, the mosque, located about 1.5 kilometers from the church, was given permission to conduct a call to prayers on Fridays as long as the noise levels do not exceed 110 decibels as heard from the outside or 45 decibels from inside.
Leaders of Sweden's Christian Democrat party have opposed the call to prayer and asked local politicians to reject the mosque's application. Party leader Ebba Busch Thor contended that "people shouldn't have to hear it in their homes."
Leading Swedish organizations in the country supported the mosque, arguing that banning the call to prayer would be harmful to integration.
Fogelqvist said that the bell ringing would help increase the visibility of the Catholic Church in the community, but expressed concern about the "long process" of seeking permission from town officials.
Vaxjo was only the third Swedish town to allow a mosque to conduct a call to prayer, following in the steps of the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka and the municipality of Karlskrona.
A poll conducted by the social research company SIFO found that 60 percent of the respondents were not in favor of allowing the Islamic call to prayer from mosques in the country.
Avdi Islami, a spokesman for Vaxjo's Islamic community, argued that the prayer calls were no different from the ringing of church bells, adding that thousands of Muslims visit mosques each year.
"We have a society in which we are different...it's therefore better to think of the differences as making us stronger," Islami said, as reported by Agence France Presse, citing TT news agency.
