http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret
having just been to Istanbul, I can say minarets are pretty and it's nice to hear the call to prayer from alternating mosques - but the minaret of course is now no longer a watchtower but a speaker-mount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraum%C3%BCnster - I believe the 11am bells are ringing. It must be either that or St Peter's church ringing away.... I struggle to see how either "call" is either good or bad for me - in the end, it just becomes background noise.

It does, however, strike me that the minaret issue is purely aesthetic and the objections are to the object and not the call to prayer. How very odd.