Purported letter of children complaining to collector about Azaan goes viral

New Delhi, Nov 26: A three page letter reportedly written by some children in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp. The letter dated November 9 2022 is addressed to the collector and has an official stamp on it.

In this letter the children have told the Bhopal collector about the hardships they are facing due to the blaring noise coming from the loudspeakers that are used to play the Azaan in a Mosque in their neighbourhood.

What the letter states:

The children said that they live at Nikhil Bungalow, Phase-3, Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal. The children alleged that they get extremely disturbed by the sound of Azaan coming from the Mosque's loudspeaker. Asserting that Azaan is performed in different voices at different times of the day, the children demanded to know the reason for the noise coming at off hours. They demanded that the Mosque be closed down.

They decided to write to the collector after neither their parents or neighbours could offer any solution. They complained that the loudspeaker installed on their colony's boundary wall starts playing indiscriminately at any time of the day or not. This has interfered with our studies, the children said.

The children also asked why the Azaan is performed in Arabic given that no one can understand the sound that is coming from the Mosque. The children also claimed to have discussed this with their classmates who had also reported hearing similar sounds in their neighbourhood.

However these claims are not verified. Reports said that an attempt to reach out to the Bhopal collector Avinash Lavania did not elicit any response. OpIndia contacted the developer of Bhopal's Nikhil Bungalow Phase 3 Colony and he denied having knowledge of any such letter. He however said there is a Mosque 500 metres away from the colony and the sound that emanates out of it can be heard clearly across the colony.