First I would like to please explain that this is not about the prayer call, it's only about the use of very loud speakers in residential areas. I also want to apologize for the very long post, I just wanted to make sure to describe the situation as best as possible.
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I'm from Egypt, and there, like many Muslim majority countries, we have wide spread mosques everywhere, which is a wonderful thing. However, in countries like Egypt there is also the wide spread of smaller mosques known as "Zawyas" or "corners", signifying that it's a small mosque.
Usually it's just an apartment opened up in the ground floor of a regular apartment building.
I'm Muslim. I pray daily, however I've been told before that I don't have the behavior of a devout Muslim because I ask too many questions regarding religion. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but that's me.
For over 15 years I've lived next to one of the smaller mosques I mentioned, where sadly, I genuinely suffered because of the speakers they use for prayer call.
It is too loud, and some of the Mo'athens there should not be doing it, because adding the very loud speaker with very loud screaming just brings a very bad experience.
Whenever I asked, people tended to tell me "It's just for a couple of minutes". I realize that, but please, try to imagine this happening 5 times a day, where sometimes you could be sleeping, tired, sick, old, studying and whatever else and a sudden very loud blast of sound bursts.
I know some will think I might be exaggerating, I swear I'm not. It is so loud, that it vibrates glass on windows, which actually caused some car alarms to be triggered.
How do you deal with such a thing?
I tried asking the mosque to please lower the volume a bit or at least change the direction of the speaker so it's not blowing sound downwards on the street but upwards.
They insulted me, disrespected me, called me a kafer and accused me that I want the mosque to be closed. Even though my only intention was to ask them for help.
Two of my neighbors heard what I did and told me that they didn't and will never say anything because they knew they'd get that exact same reaction.
It became such a problem in later years that it actually affected my well being, so I was forced to find a new place to move to, where I specifically asked "Please, no mosque nearby". Which sadly lessened the times I pray in mosque now, but I just couldn't handle another loud speaker atmosphere on a daily basis.
Since I've moved, my life changed so much for the better. I knew it was a problem, but I never realized how much of a difference and impact it would have on me without those speakers right in the middle of residential street.
I still think about it, even though I'm not there anymore. How in the world are we supposed to deal with this? When such a thing is somehow turned into an insult to Islam for some reason, even though our religion encourages us to not bother or annoy our neighbors, even if it were with Quran.
Sometimes these Zawyas feel like they're their own authority and whatever they do, no one can complain because if you do, you are an enemy of Islam.
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