In a leaflet recently put through East Oxford residents' doors, the Liberal Democrats referred to the Islamic prayer call issue as nothing more than a storm in a teacup.

It seems that the petition to release the mosque from its founding covenant not to broadcast a prayer call by loudspeaker was signed by only two people, one of whom is not a Muslim.

Nor, says the leaflet, does the mosque committee support an amplified prayer call, as it already runs an efficient system to tell worshippers the times of prayer throughout the year.

Yet if our councillors already had this information at the time when Canon David Partridge, of Emsworth, Hampshire (who seems to use the mosque as his Oxford address), spoke in favour of the prayer call before the city council on November 19, why did they wait more than two months until the whole affair had erupted into a full-scale local and national scandal, with sustained hostile national press and media coverage, before making it public?

Could local politicians have been hoping to make political capital out of this, until the water got so hot that they had to jump out and begin a damage-limitation exercise?

Had they spoken up sooner, they would have done local residents an enormous favour, helped to quell deep anxieties, and made people less fearful for the future of their homes, neighbourhood, and community relations.

May we express our warmest thanks to the Rev Charlie Cleverly, Rector of St Aldate's Church, for his courageous opposition to the megaphone prayer call threat?

It is reassuring to find an Anglican clergyman who is not ashamed to defend his Christian faith and English principles when bishops and canons go overboard in their support for Islam.

Dr Allan Chapman & Rachel Chapman East Oxford