It happens to every civilised community that people will complain to basically anything - from rubbish dumping, faulty street lights, vandalised public facilities, etc, etc - and that surely includes noise pollution.

If a discotheque blasts music until late midnight, they will get a complaint simply because it disturbs the neighbourhood. Action shall then be taken to make sure that the discotheque controls its music volume and operating hour.

So, when people can't sleep well due to some loud noise, they will complain and action shall then be taken to check if the complaint is justified. Is there anything wrong with this?

There was a group of ‘faithful Muslims’ gathered at Kampung Kerinchi last week demonstrating and protesting against the complaint about the azan volume being too loud and causing some sleep disruption.

Thanks to them, we now know that the purity/power of Islam is somehow related to the volume of a loud speaker - the image of Islam could be damaged just because someone makes a request to lower the loudspeaker volume. Not only that, it seems such a request will become "a threat to racial harmony".

I don't think I need to be a Muslim to understand that the above statement is nothing but rubbish. Many of my Muslim friends would agree with me on this. Christians will not lose their faith because they don't hear the Sunday bells (which has disappeared from Malaysia for decades). Other religions’ believers also will not feel "threatened" because their chanting is not broadcast through loudspeakers from temples.

I respect the lawyer who filed his complaint in a civilised manner. He simply stood out for the silent majority of people who are too afraid to offend people like those demonstrators with a similar request.

It is simply too ironic that those who accused others of damaging racial harmony are in fact the ones who are the biggest threats to the true 1Malaysia spirit.

Instead of organising a proper meeting with the complainant and neighbourhood residents to discuss if the volume is really too loud, such groups of people had instead chosen to protest in an uncivilised and unlawful manner (unlawful by the definition of our Malaysian police) to demonstrate and burn an effigy of the complainant.

They even disclosed his personal particulars and urged the government to arrest him under the Internal Security Act.

Well, with people like these protestors in Malaysia, I honestly don't think the BN needs ISA anymore to threaten its opposition. Even ordinary citizens like us would be scared enough already.