Constitutional Law

Hartford City Council says no to Muslim prayer

By By The Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. ? Hartford officials now say they won't include Muslim prayers before City Council meetings in September, after getting mostly negative feedback from the public on an earlier plan to invite Islamic invocations.

The reversal has prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Connecticut to plan a prayer vigil tonight at City Hall in protest.

Some city councilors suggested including Islamic prayers in September along with convocations from representatives of other faiths. City councilors had planned to go ahead with the Muslim prayers despite receiving a flood of negative e-mails. The Hartford Courant reported they decided Sept. 10 to hold an interfaith moment of silence instead.

The Islamic relations council is requesting that an imam be allowed to say a Muslim prayer at the City Council's Sept. 27 meeting.

Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of CAIR's Connecticut chapter, said calling off the imam's prayer creates an impression that Connecticut Muslims were involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Courant reported.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on September 12, 2010 (boomark / email).