ADDRESSED TO: PRITI PATEL, HOME SECRETARY, AND BORIS JOHNSON, THE PRIME MINISTER

The Islamic call to prayer - the adhan - is not normally permitted in Western countries due to noise abatement laws which among other things, prohibit the breaching of the peace.

However, there has been a tendency for well-meaning councils to waive the noise abatement laws during the Islamic month of Ramadan, and as a result, non-Muslim communities up and down the country have been subject to the adhan being broadcast at high volume through powerful loudspeaker systems, up to five times a day, often starting before dawn.

This situation has led to a deluge of complaints to the councils involved.

It is one thing to be tolerant of a temporary breach of the noise abatement laws in order to accommodate what Muslims describe merely as Islamic religious practice.

However, it is quite another to permit this overt expression of the Islamic religion to continue beyond the end of Ramadan - and yet this is what Islamic communities up and down the country are now demanding from local councils.

We demand an immediate ban on the public broadcast of the Islamic call to prayer on the basis that such intrusive practices should never be tolerated in any peaceful society: