Sir - We really must take issue with Canon Partridge's statement that the Islamic prayer call is not preaching (Letters, December 21).

For in addition to its assertion of the primacy of God - which we accept, but others might not - the call contains explicit statements about Mohammed as God's Messenger, and (in the Shia version) Ali's status as God's Viceregent, not to mention exhorting Muslims to 'make haste towards the best thing', whatever that may be. And if that is not sectarian preaching, especially when each part is repeated, we'd like to know what is.

But why not check for yourself in the online Wikipedia (translation provided by an Islamic Centre) or Encyclopaedia Britannica?

I also wish that Mr Sardar Rana and his friends at the Mosque would make up their minds how many prayer calls they are 'bidding' for, as variously reported: once per day on Fridays, thrice daily at 12.45pm, 2.30pm and 4.30pm, or what?

Or is he giving a number which he feels the city council will accept before next pressing for Islam's usual five daily calls, starting around dawn? Mr Rana is wrong in implying that the prayer call is now becoming accepted across the UK.

Maybe it is in one or two pockets of dense Muslim population, but most definitely not in places like Oxford, where Muslims form a minority.

And we are flabbergasted to find a senior Anglican priest, Canon Partridge, openly advising the mosque on how best they can impose their religion upon East Oxford. Like the majority of people, we don't share his rosy view of Christian bells and Islamic prayer calls resounding harmoniously together.

And, if he had much knowledge of Islamic history, neither would he.

Dr Allan Chapman and Mrs Rachel Chapman, Oxford