Mosques in Cologne will now be allowed to relay the call to prayer via loudspeakers every Friday, making it the first major German city to permit the practice.

The two-year pilot scheme will give each mosque the opportunity to sound the muezzin for five minutes every Friday between 12pm and 3pm.

Mayor Henriette Reker praised the decision to give the 35 mosques in Cologne broadcasting rights as a ‘sign of respect,’ claiming that it shows that ‘diversity is valued and lived’ in the city that plays host to Germany’s largest mosque.

Some 4.5 million Muslims live in Germany, making up the country’s largest religious minority group.

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