# Decibels



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

I am wondering if there is somewhere you can complain about the volume of the call to prayer and for it to be looked into.

This morning I jumped with fright at the call, it was so loud I thought the man was in the room..I can see the mosque from my window but I have shutters on them.

Do they normally turn it down for the Fajr call?


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## Whitedesert (Oct 9, 2011)

Personally I would live with it, you do get used to it, eventually. If you made approaches on the loudness of the calls, you will just draw "unwelcome" attention to yourself. Mubaraks Government was going to do something about it (so I was told by my Egyptian staff), but I guess that wont happen now, if ever it was going to happen...My apartment has a kind of courtyard (on the ground floor) and the amplified sound actually bounces of the walls because of the acoustic nature of the surrounding buildings and "booms" down into the courtyard reverberating into our bedroom. In the beginning (at 04:56 in the morning) I jumped straight up and bumped my head on the headboard, but nowadays I just turn over and go back to sleep. The cat just twitches her ears and goes back to sleep as well.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Whitedesert said:


> Personally I would live with it, you do get used to it, eventually. If you made approaches on the loudness of the calls, you will just draw "unwelcome" attention to yourself. Mubaraks Government was going to do something about it (so I was told by my Egyptian staff), but I guess that wont happen now, if ever it was going to happen...My apartment has a kind of courtyard (on the ground floor) and the amplified sound actually bounces of the walls because of the acoustic nature of the surrounding buildings and "booms" down into the courtyard reverberating into our bedroom. In the beginning (at 04:56 in the morning) I jumped straight up and bumped my head on the headboard, but nowadays I just turn over and go back to sleep. The cat just twitches her ears and goes back to sleep as well.




I think you miss understand.. I have lived here since the last century and I am well used to it so the morning prayer call must have been turned up to make me jump awake.
Mubarak brought out a synchronised call to prayer about 5 years, making every mosque call at the same time which is wrong.


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## kevinthegulf (Aug 16, 2009)

MaidenScotland said:


> I think you miss understand.. I have lived here since the last century and I am well used to it so the morning prayer call must have been turned up to make me jump awake.
> Mubarak brought out a synchronised call to prayer about 5 years, making every mosque call at the same time which is wrong.


Unfortunately in this day and age here, making a complaint about that is likely to leave you with a mob banging on your door, because for sure you will be identified,


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

kevinthegulf said:


> Unfortunately in this day and age here, making a complaint about that is likely to leave you with a mob banging on your door, because for sure you will be identified,




Strange thing is the call that came an hour ago.. I could hardly hear it so maybe the volume has been turned down by other complainers.
A friend of mine actually complained to the mosque across the street from her when they moved the loudspeaker so that it was pointing straight into her bedroom.. they moved it.
Her husband hid lol


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> Strange thing is the call that came an hour ago.. I could hardly hear it so maybe the volume has been turned down by other complainers.
> A friend of mine actually complained to the mosque across the street from her when they moved the loudspeaker so that it was pointing straight into her bedroom.. they moved it.
> Her husband hid lol


Is there somewhere you can complain about the volume of the call to prayer and for it to be looked into? Not as far as I'm aware of no, but like your friend did, you can take the chances and complain directly to the mosque's "administration"?

But in that case the response you'd get will depend on whether the mosque's ran by people, or idiots, your friend (Who I think is an expat too?) obviously got lucky and had the loudspeaker moved, wouldn't bet on that these days with all those idiots trying/taking over most of the mosques


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> I am wondering if there is somewhere you can complain about the volume of the call to prayer and for it to be looked into.
> 
> This morning I jumped with fright at the call, it was so loud I thought the man was in the room..I can see the mosque from my window but I have shutters on them.
> 
> Do they normally turn it down for the Fajr call?


lol get yourself a pair of pliers and leave them without electric power


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## marenostrum (Feb 19, 2011)

If you are here for the duration I would invest in some decent sound proofing.
Forget contacting the mosque, they don't give a .... about noise pollution.


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## JohnJ24 (Jun 10, 2011)

MaidenScotland said:


> I am wondering if there is somewhere you can complain about the volume of the call to prayer and for it to be looked into.
> 
> This morning I jumped with fright at the call, it was so loud I thought the man was in the room..I can see the mosque from my window but I have shutters on them.
> 
> Do they normally turn it down for the Fajr call?


Maybe you could turn the hearing aid down a bit?


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

It has been turned down.. seems it was turned up by mistake!


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

JohnJ24 said:


> Maybe you could turn the hearing aid down a bit?




I don't know why being deaf is such a source of amusement for some, if I was blind no one would make fun. Being partially deaf makes life very difficult for me with all constant background noise.


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## Musical (Feb 8, 2011)

MaidenScotland said:


> I don't know why being deaf is such a source of amusement for some, if I was blind no one would make fun. Being partially deaf makes life very difficult for me with all constant background noise.


Yes, it is a terrible affliction, I agree. When I was serving on the National Executive of the Musicians' Union in Britain, tinnitus was the number one occupational illness among the members, and the stories of difficulties that it caused were heartbreaking. It's so sad that people don't recognise the significance of hearing damage, or take it seriously. I have been incredibly lucky: after working as a professional musician all my life, I have suffered hardly any hearing loss. Many of my contemporaries have not been so fortunate, alas.


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## JohnJ24 (Jun 10, 2011)

Pardon!


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## marenostrum (Feb 19, 2011)

JohnJ24 said:


> Pardon!


I think you have put your foot in the proverbial....


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## ice2x01 (Jul 3, 2011)

I can't sleep without earplugs. I live on a main street in Heliopolis. Cars are honking as I type this (2 am).


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## saafend (Dec 21, 2010)

aykalam said:


> lol get yourself a pair of pliers and leave them without electric power


Good luck with that im here if needed.

Saaf


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## Whitedesert (Oct 9, 2011)

MaidenScotland said:


> I think you miss understand.. I have lived here since the last century and I am well used to it so the morning prayer call must have been turned up to make me jump awake.
> Mubarak brought out a synchronised call to prayer about 5 years, making every mosque call at the same time which is wrong.


It is louder, much louder since I arrived here in 2005, and yes very much spot on the two in my neighbourhood starts up together, but not the same "song" Honestly Maiden, I think it is just going to become more and more intruding into our lives. We think they are rude, they think we are infidels. We think common curtesy, they think unbelievers. I follow the managerial rule that says "can you do something about it?" No, I cannot. Learned a good lesson, when my existing lease expires and I am still around I will only choose an apartment where I first listened to the local Mosque calls, and if it is too much, no deal.


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