minaret

In Linxia, Gansu province, a city once nicknamed Little Mecca, the elaborate dome and minarets of Tiejia mosque were demolished last year for seeming too “Arabic,” say locals, and the call to prayer forbidden as a “public nuisance.”

And of course, he was even spied on by the NSA under Project MINARET.

Eventually Congress learned the NSA was also snooping on U.S. citizens through programs code named Minaret and Shamrock.

But, as with the claims for minaret building in Switzerland, more is being demanded by Muslims.

Over all rises the square, crescent-crowned minaret—no belfry, but a steeple where the chimes are rung by the human voice.

There was a minaret directly across the narrow street, so we had the call to prayer almost over our heads five times a day.

The minaret rises higher above the mosque than the steeple usually does above the church.

By day, bathed in the hot rays of the sun, its tall minaret-like outline looks like a block of ice against the blue sky.

Minaret and pinnaret, battlement and shuttle-door, it was a perfect drug-store, nobly planned.