Originally Posted by IKnowNothing (Post 12422716)

(Welcome back....)

I moved, I now live around a 5 minute walk to a mosque, no problem except the shop next to it charged me 14.50 deposit on the big bottle of water.

Anyway, the 5am (fajr) call to prayer is so loud, it wakes me up - and, even worse, on a Friday it also wakes the wife, the cat and probably the goldfish too.

I'm hoping I get used to it.

Gotta love some countries.

Have you missed me?

Originally Posted by littlejimmy (Post 12422730)

I was on the rooftop at my hotel by SZR today, catching some rays and chillin' by the pool as you do, and the call to prayer that went out at lunchtime went on and on and on and on. I guess it's a Friday thing.

Originally Posted by Norm_uk (Post 12423597)

Or Luton, or certain London boroughs, or parts of Birmingham.

If only this was just a jest.

N.

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12423600)

Mosques in the UK are not allowed to broadcast at all.

Originally Posted by IKnowNothing (Post 12422716)

Have you missed me?

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12423599)

That's because it's not the call to prayer (the Azhan), it's the prayer itself, which on Friday, especially, does go on and on.

So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.

In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.

The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.

Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...

Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.

Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.

One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.

After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....

Originally Posted by jam25mack (Post 12423626)

This is the first thing I check out before going to look at a apartment, where is the nearest mosque.

Currently I am equidistant between 3 but they are all of sufficient distance that the call to prayer is not too loud and if I am honest I rarely hear it. During ramadan they all crank them up a bit and so you can hear Mr Shouty going for it but again its not too bad.

Thankfully I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much anything..... hence my living in Mirdif for several years. I don't even acknowledge the planes anymore.

Originally Posted by IKnowNothing (Post 12422716)

Have you missed me?

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12423634)

During the last 10 nights of Ramadan - so called Laylat al Qad'r - they perform the hajjut prayer which goes on for the best part of an hour in the middle of the night (between 2:00 and 3:30am). Given that apparently you get extra credit for prayers during this time, the gates of hell are closed and so and so so on, the intensity of the praying also kicks up significantly adding to the already raised volume. I always try to travel during that time....

Originally Posted by jam25mack (Post 12423653)

Sometimes they really do sound majorly pissed off! I'd quite like to be able to understand what they're saying just for that reason....

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12423599)

That's because it's not the call to prayer (the Azhan), it's the prayer itself, which on Friday, especially, does go on and on.

So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.

In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.

The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.

Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...

Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.

Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.

One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.

After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....