WE ARE puzzled to read that an application has been made by the Central Mosque in Manzil Way, off Cowley Road, Oxford, to have planning laws changed to enable Muslims to broadcast the Islamic prayer call at least three times a day from the minaret.

Surely most Muslims living in East Oxford will have watches, mobile phones and abundant electronic means of knowing the time without needing a broadcast call?

Living indoors, or travelling in cars, as people do in our climate, we wonder how many decibels will be needed to penetrate the brick, metal and double glazing for the call to get through.

We have heard it said that Muslims do not like the ringing of church bells. Yet bells are part of the ancient culture of the West, especially in a medieval city. A bell, moreover, is simply a musical signal.

But the prayer call is an explicit theological statement in Arabic words about, among other things, the prophetic status of Mohammed. To put it plainly, it is public preaching.

How would Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and atheists react if every church applied to broadcast an amplified recitation of The Lord's Prayer from its tower several times each day?

And unlike the prayer call, which we understand takes around two minutes, The Lord's Prayer would take only 35 seconds at most. If the Central Mosque gets its three daily calls, when will it next press for all five, from dawn to dusk?

And when will the other five mosques in the area seek permission to do likewise, and blanket East Oxford with up to 30 prayer calls a day?

Like many people we have spoken to, we strongly object to having Islam thrust upon us when sitting in the garden or having the windows open in summer, or indeed when walking in the street.

It would open up a public health issue of noise nuisance, especially for people living in the Divinity and Southfield Road area, where the majority of residents are not Muslims.

It would also infringe their human right not to have to endure another person's religion forced upon them by inescapable public preaching.

Or is this whole application simply an attempt to use English law to make Islam the public religion of East Oxford?

ALLAN CHAPMAN (Dr) RACHEL CHAPMAN East Oxford