I am a foreigner living in Malaysia, I am a Muslim by birth and got my post-graduate degree in Islamic Law. I have been teaching Islamic Law in one of the world’s best universities.

I am now residing at the Bukit Bayu enclave at Sungai Petani Kedah. This is an exclusive housing area which is guarded and gated, each house costing between RM300,000 to a RM1 million. because of the locality and security. We have a beautiful mosque near our housing area but then some guy from our community took over it as a self-styled administrator.

We really didn’t mind at first and all of us paid a voluntary contribution according to what we could afford for the mosque maintenance. Some time later though, this chap started his own catering business and whoever wanted to use the mosque for a function would have to appoint him as the caterer. This really damaged the goodwill between the residents.

That’s one problem.

Now, unfortunately, few months back, a guy who was studying in some ‘madrassah’ in the Middle East, came back after completing his studies. He happens to be the son-in-law of one of my neighbours who is a contractor for Telekom Malaysia.

This chap (the son-in-law) upon his return, proceeded to put a huge loudspeaker on a pole just outside my neighbour’s house and anytime of the day or night would make speeches or just start singing some random religious songs.

The situation got worse when he would wake up at 5am and start his show, pouring his precious views in our ears while we ere still asleep and continuing in the evening from 6pm to 10pm when we have to take calls from friend and business colleagues.

The noise is too loud and won’t let us work or sleep. Even after closing our doors and windows, and pulling the curtains, its impossible to work or sleep.

We have requested the owner of house to remove this loudspeaker to allow us a peaceful life and that if we were interested to hear what his son-in-law had to say we would go to the mosque. But all this went unheard though we really wouldn’t mind if this loudspeaker was placed inside the mosque’s premises.

We would like to request the authorities concerned to remove this loudspeaker and to also appoint a government-approved ‘imam’ for our mosque. The mosque should only be used for prayers and loudspeakers should only be utilised for the call of our ‘azan’.

We would appreciate the attention of authorities on this issue. The situation is such that this beautiful place is becoming unliveable.