ICC Note: Nigeria is closing some houses of worship, churches and mosques included, because they simply make too much noise. In the country’s economic hub city of Lagos, home to more than 18 million people on a densely packed island and peninsula, Islamic calls to prayer and vivacious Sunday church services have become a sound disruption so intense that the government is beginning to regulate them. While this story does not represent an example of Christian persecution, the debates involved certainly touch the subject of religious freedom and decisions may affect how Christians in Nigeria will remain free to practice their faith reasonably, setting precedent for possible future government abuses of such statutes.

7/7/16 Lagos, Nigeria (Christian Today) – This is a problem that some churches in the increasingly-secular West must dream of sharing.

Christianity is growing so fast and so noisily in parts of Nigeria that the authorities are actually having to shut churches down – to secure peace and quiet for local residents.

And it is not just churches. Mosques too are being closed in a clampdown on noise pollution. Places of worship are being sacrificed as part of a plan to make Lagos free of noise pollution in just four years.

Many Nigerian churches are in enormous buildings, are well resourced, employ thousands of staff and have large robed choirs full of singers that could give most X Factor contestants a run for the top prize. They hold joyous worship celebrations with loud, compelling gospel music, often accompanied by live bands, that last for hours.

The churches being shut down, however, are generally those meeting in make-shift buildings where there has been little attempt made to sound-proof buildings and services.

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