Wellington City Council clarifies plans to allow mosques to broadcast call to prayer

A Wellington City Council agenda confirms Kilbirnie Mosque plans to broadcast the call to prayer three times a year.

Representatives of Wellington’s Kilbirnie Mosque have confirmed plans to broadcast the call to prayer three times a year – not five times a day as some commentators have previously claimed.

Mayor Tory Whanau introduced an amendment during District Plan discussions earlier this year to review noise limits for music venues and prayer calls in the capital.

One change the mayor wanted council staff to investigate was whether calls to prayer should be allowed to be broadcast from loudspeakers on mosques and other religious buildings.

The amendment prompted concern from some in the community about how often - and how loud - such a broadcast would be.

The decision even featured on an anti-council leaflet recently delivered to houses across the city, calling for Wellingtonians to “take back your city!”.

Wellington City Council documents now show the Kilbirnie Mosque has requested to broadcast calls to prayer on the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks, once during the Festival of Eid al-Adha, and once during the Festival of Eid al-Fitr.

“At each broadcast, the call would last about a minute and a half to two minutes,” the council document confirms.

Councillors will discuss the request this Thursday at an Environment and Infrastructure Committee meeting.

The agenda says the broadcast is not intended as a call throughout the neighbourhood or suburb. Instead, it would take place at a mosque forecourt and be amplified using a sound system “for the benefit of those assembled there”.

Under the current proposal, noise coming from an outdoor speaker system for up to two minutes would not require a resource consent.

“Should the intent change in the future and mosques seek to broadcast call to prayer on a more frequent and regular basis, resource consent would be required,” the agenda states.

Daily broadcasted calls to prayer are not permitted under the district plan.

Tory Whanau previously told Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills the purpose of the amendment was for events like March 15, or one-off events.

“We can commemorate the events that happened on that day and mosques won’t have a noise restriction, much like church bells.”

Whanau had said a request to allow religious venues to broadcast calls to prayer multiple times a day would “probably not” be reasonable.

Azaria Howell is a Wellington-based multimedia reporter with an eye across the region. She joined NZME in 2022 and has a keen interest in city council decisions, public service agency reform and transport.