Indiana Lieutenant Governor calls for ban on mosque call to prayer
Lieutenant governor wants governments to stop mosques broadcasting adhan, a demand that runs straight into First Amendment
INDIANAPOLIS (MNTV) — Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith is facing mounting condemnation after calling for mosques to be barred from broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer, a demand civil rights groups and faith leaders say targets a religious minority for its worship.
In recent podcast appearances and posts online, Beckwith argued that governments should prevent mosques from using loudspeakers for the adhan, and later restated plainly that he wants the practice banned.
He has previously described Islam in terms Muslim advocacy groups have condemned as dehumanizing, and he defends the position by asserting that Islam conflicts with American values — an argument that judges an entire faith by the actions of extremists rather than by what ordinary Muslims actually believe and do.
The proposal cannot be squared with the Constitution.
Banning a religious practice because of the faith it belongs to is precisely what the First Amendment forbids, which is why the objections have come from Indiana lawmakers and faith leaders across the state, including within Beckwith’s own party.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations noted that the adhan is a peaceful call to worship Muslims have made for more than fourteen centuries, and that recasting it as a threat feeds misinformation and hostility toward millions of American Muslims.
Advocates also rejected the premise beneath Beckwith’s argument — the United States was not founded on the primacy of one religion, and constitutional protections cover every faith and none equally.
The Indiana Muslim Advocacy Network raised particular concern about his planned appearance at an immigration rally in Fishers, home to one of the state’s largest Muslim populations, warning that fusing anti-Muslim rhetoric with immigration politics deepens fear in the communities on the receiving end.
An elected official using his office to demand that a minority’s worship be silenced is not a debate about national identity; it is a test of whether religious liberty means anything when the religion is Islam.
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