According to one of my sources, no one informed city council that the Queen City was about to pull on a burqa.
But Regina’s first female police chief Loralee Davies took over last November, so apparently she’s now runnin’ the joint.
“We believe that this will help us in Regina to be familiar and introduce the Regina City Jamia Masjid within the Muslim and the non-Muslim community because we are here at the heart of Regina downtown,” said M Anisur Rahaman. […]
“We believe in multicultural diversity, we appreciate the Regina Police Service for giving us permission to test this call to prayer with the loudspeaker on the rooftop to give us that permission for one month to test, to see how it is going before they actually issue a permit for a longer period of time,” Rahaman said.
The RCJM has a permit until the middle of July to use the outdoor calls, and then a permit until the end of the year. Rahaman said they’ll have to renew the permit every year.
Additionally, the building will be opening a childcare centre, Islamic school and masjid within the next year.
Rahaman said their masjid will be opening next month, the childcare centre at the beginning of August, and the Islamic school next year.
In terms of how far the call is expected to travel, Rahaman said that it will be within a one-kilometre radius from the building.
Anyhoo… Regina’s new minted religious police caution that Muslim values are Saskatchewan values and if you refuse those values, you valueless infidels could be guilty of a hate crime.