Unholy disturbance

Chaotic traffic, speakers blasting music, street vendors and thousands of people going about their business are typical on the streets of most of Africa's big cities. But in Ghana, mosques and churches are seen to be compounding the problem of excessive noise.

In the capital Accra, authorities are seeking to deal with the racket caused by these places of worship — and mosques in particular. Mosques are being asked to use mobile text or WhatsApp messages to call the Muslim community to prayer.

The purpose of the Islamic call to prayer is to show dominance in the community. In Saudi Arabia, non-Islamic places of worship are banned. So, one hears the exclusively wicked Islamic cacophony of noise five times a day. Furthermore, stores are required to shut down for roughly 20 minutes for the duration of each prayer. Of course, it's irrelevant whether the owner of the store prays or not.

If the call to prayer was merely a reminder to Muslims, then they would have simple alarms set up on their clocks, watches or phones.

Europeans are learning about this small-scale terror the hard way.