Calls to summon Muslims to prayer were broadcast over loudspeakers for the first time ever in Sweden this past Friday on April 26^th at the Fittja Mosque in the Stockholm municipality of Botkyrka.  The Islamic call to prayer (adhan), resonating from the towering 104-foot (32-meter) minaret, began with the ear-shattering "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great) and was followed by the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith: "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah".  Every Friday, people from as far as two kilometers away will be subjected to hear what U.S. President Obama called "one of the prettiest sounds on earth".

This is what Swedes in the Stockholm municipality of Botkyrka will have to get used to, now that the decision rendered by the Botkyrka Municipal Assembly and authorized by the Botkyrka Police to approve the public call to worship, has taken effect.  Whether or not Swedes find it offensive, loud, or disruptive, they have no choice but to listen every Friday to the live three-to-five-minute amplified recitation of the Muslim declaration of faith that calls the people to come together and pray.To pray for what?

Has anyone ever wondered, or taken the time to understand what these prayers, to which Muslims are now being publicly called, are all about?  One of the Friday prayers consists of the seven verses of the opening chapter of the Koran, Al-Fatiha (The Beginning).  This prayer, which is repeated twice during Friday noon prayer, and repeated 17 times a day by religious Muslims, instills distrust of the non-believer by asking Allah to keep Muslims away from the path of the Jews and Christians:

Guide us to the Straight Way, the Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians). 

According to Louis Palme who often writes on Muslim apostate websites, Friday prayers include recitation of two additional Koranic chapters, chapters 62 (Friday) and 63 (Hypocrites).  These chapters encourage hatred of not only Jews and Christians, but also of those who renounce their Muslim faith. Jews are compared to "the likeness of a donkey who carries huge burdens of books (but understands nothing from them)" and are told to long for death if they pretend to be friends of Allah.  Non-believers (i.e., Christians, Hindus, Buddhists) are condemned to a state of error until Mohammed purifies them "from the filth of disbelief and polytheism" with his verses.  Hypocrites or apostates "are the enemies so beware of them. May Allah curse them!"

The application to demand permission for the amplified call to prayer in Botkyrka was submitted in January 2012 by the President of the Botkyrka Islamic Cultural Association, Ismail Okur.  He convinced the majority of the Botkyrka Municipal Assembly members to concede to his demand after telling Swedish newspaper Dagen that "now we want to have religious freedom."

Unbeknown to most council members, Islam does not allow religious freedom -- according to the Koran (Medina chapters), the Hadiths, and Reliance of the Traveller (one of the most venerated and reliable manuals of Islamic Sunni law).  Islam does not give people the option to follow other religions, nor does it give Muslims the choice to leave their religion -- despite what verse 256 from chapter two of the Koran says: "There is no compulsion in religion."  If this were truly the case, then why are countless numbers of non-Muslims, Muslim apostates, and Muslims of other sects or denominations being persecuted and killed throughout the world?

Intolerance to people of faiths other than Islam occurs not only in countries where Islam is the state religion, but also in the Sharia-controlled no-go zones that are springing up all over Europe.  These areas are off-limits to non-Muslims and function as independent Islamic republics. Intolerance also occurs in non-Islamic countries like the Philippines where Islam is busy creating a separate Islamic state in the south (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, ARMM), and in Indonesia-occupied West Papua, the former Dutch colony, where Islam is vying for control. China's far-west region of Xinjiang is another area where Islam wants to establish an independent state, namely East Turkestan. Integration is out of the question, as Islam is more interested in breaking away from Western culture and in forming a separate Islamic state to eventually become part of an Islamic caliphate. Amplifying the call to prayer on Friday is only the beginning.

Stockholm, and eventually any Swedish city or municipality where a mosque can be found, will soon enjoy more of the same five times a day for the entire week.  As senior analyst Soeren Kern writes, "the decision is especially significant because it will set a precedent for all of the 200 other mosques in Sweden."  Sharia law has just been imposed on the citizens of Stockholm. Good luck Sweden, you are not alone.

Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney is a Montreal-based freelance writer. She monitors and comments on Mideast media reports and the rising threat of radical Islam in the West.