(WPR) Somali residents in the rural northern Wisconsin city of Barron are withdrawing a request to play an amplified Muslim call to prayer from two mosques after the idea drew stiff opposition from some residents at a recent city council meeting.
Barron is home to a community of around 470 Somali refugees and their families, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census. That population has grown since the 1990s when refugees living in the Twin Cities moved to Barron for work at a turkey processing plant owned by Jennie-O.
Isaak Mohamed was born in Somalia and fled the country in 2006 due to civil war. He moved to Barron in 2013, became a U.S. citizen in 2018 and was elected to the city’s common council this spring.
