A story of Shaykh Al-Albani regarding his prayer as a traveler with a group of residents.

The Shaykh : It is a good thing, and this reminds me that in some of my trips for Hajj or 'Umrah—I do not remember exactly now—I used to stay with a friend of ours in Tabuk, perhaps one of you knows him, Ghaleb al-Hadhrami, I don't know if you know him. Anyway, we went down to the mosque for the 'Isha' prayer, and he said, "Step forward," but I refused at first. He said, "O Shaykh, please, the people want to hear your recitation and see your prayer, and so on." I said, "O Shaykh, I am afraid there will be a commotion." He said, "Why?" I said, "Because I am a traveler; I will pray two rak'ahs, and you are residents." He said, "No problem, let them learn the Sunnah." So I said to myself, I must give them a lecture before I enter the state of ihram. I spoke, and the summary was that I am a traveler, and my brother Ghaleb presented me to lead you, so I will pray only two rak'ahs with you, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us this way. And when I pray two rak'ahs, you will not hear the closing salam directly from me; rather, I will tell you, "Complete your prayer, for we are travelers," and I will have said the salam secretly, but I will not let you hear it so that you do not get involved with me and say the salam with me. So what was the outcome? Allahu Akbar, I prayed two rak'ahs. May Allah reward you, what Allah willed. I said, "Complete your prayer, for we are travelers." Some people stood up, and some said the salam, and the commotion and disagreement began, and so on. And some criticized our brother Ghaleb, saying, "Why, my brother, did you present this man to us?" And there was back-and-forth talk and phone calls, and so on. But praise be to Allah, it ended with a result: I affirmed the Sunnah for them. Despite this warning, it did not help, why? Because people follow customs, not the Sunnah. They are accustomed to it. So your observation, Professor, is truly in the right place. May Allah reward you with good.