Qur'an 5:51 "muslims!, take not Jews and Christians for your friends."

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The view from their converted barn should have been of glorious rolling countryside.

But when Lee Goddard and his family looked out of their windows one morning they found themselves face to face with a six-foot wall.

It had been hastily built by neighbour Elhamy Shaqer, who claimed his land extended right up to the barn wall and thus, by opening their windows, they were trespassing

He built the wall half an inch away from the back of the one-storey barn, blocking all the light and making it impossible to open the windows more than a chink.

Matters came to a head last Thursday when Mr Goddard, a builder who had turned the barn into a three-bedroom home, moved in with his partner Diane Wilson and their two sons, Harvey, five, and Charlie, two.

Mr Goddard, 35, decided to take the wall down as no light was getting in to the three bedrooms.

But he was shocked when Mr Shaqer's wife Andrea called the police and he was threatened with arrest for breaching the peace if he carried on.

Now the Shaqers have sent Mr Goddard and his parents, who own the barn near Hambridge in Somerset, a solicitor's letter threatening legal action.

They intend to seek a court order preventing the wall being damaged any further and demand costs for the rebuilding part of it.

Mr Goddard said: 'Mr Shaqer is just doing this out of spite.

'My parents have lived here for 20 years and he only moved here 18 months ago.

'He's angry that I was granted planning permission to convert our barn to a home, and he was denied permission to open a farm shop and redevelop the track to our houses.

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'The wall he's built goes right along the back of our barn and blocks all the light to the three bedrooms. I tried to sort this out with him a month ago and he promised to resolve the matter within a couple of weeks, but did nothing.

'I assumed it was OK to pull the wall down so was flabbergasted when the police turned up.'

Mr Goddard's parents, John, 64, and Joyce, 61, bought the barn in 1988 for £4,500 from the previous owners of Scotts Farm.

The barn, which is attached to their 250-year-old house, had previously been used as a chicken shed.

After he was granted planning permission it took Mr Goddard four years to complete the conversion in his spare time.

Eventually he came to finishing it, only to find that Mr Shaqer, a chef and hotelier, had built the wall 'almost overnight'.

Mr Goddard said: 'It's ridiculous to say that he owns the land up to the wall of our barn anyway.

'We think we own at least four feet outside the windows - and when my parents bought the barn deeds to the house say that there is access at the back.

'The wall is half an inch away from our windows. They were very clever as they built the wall just under 6.5ft so they didn't need planning permission for it. I want the wall taken down.'

Mrs Shaqer said the wall was built because if the Goddards opened their windows 'they would come on our land'.

She added: 'Our solicitors wrote to them offering them a piece of land which would allow them to open the windows but they did not respond.

'We have now put up the wall as instructed by our solicitor. They are not allowed to open any of the windows without committing trespass.'

South Somerset District Council said: 'The wall does not need planning permission so it is not a breach of planning control.'