Saturday, August 18, 2007

Too Early Quasi, Too Early

There's a huge amount of amusement to be had from this story:

A Dutch priest has been fined 5,000 euros ($6,800) for ringing his church bells too loudly in the morning.

The Catholic priest began ringing the bells at just after seven in the morning soon after arriving in Tilburg about six months ago, a spokesman for the town council said.

This prompted dozens of complaints from residents and the council in the southern town agreed the priest was breaking the rules.

"The priest can ring his bells whenever he likes but he has to keep within noise regulations. People don't appreciate it," the spokesman said.

The first level of amusement is, of course, that what did those who bought houses near a church expect was going to happen?

The second is a little darker: so, do muezzins have the same noise limits placed upon them when they cal for prayer from the minarets of the mosque? And if not, why not?

No comments: