AIBU to question praying and sleeping in the library kids area?

What absolute twaddle, yes this is a Christian heritage country. All of our laws, holidays and most of our traditions cultures and values have been established during a time when Christianity has been the dominant religion and dominate framework against which British culture, values as bd institutions have been set. Therefore it is a Christian country, irrespective of the numbers of people on pews on a Sunday (which is also increasing). Islam is not a part of any of that and it’s why it is “foreign”.

Taking over a kids area to pray is against our norms and values in Britain. We need to move away from this idea that pointing out British norms and values in Britain is somehow racist or Islamaphobic. Muslims should not be treated as a special class. If you want to live in Britain you abide by British norms and v as lies. One of those is a lone man not setting up a religious ritual in the middle of the kids section of a library. The fact discussing it here means it’s not considered a norm. We wouldn’t start thread of “I walked into the kids section of a library and a mum and her daughter were reading a book? “ would we! I find othe Muslim man deliberately choosing an area likely frequented by women and children to perform his chosen religious try iti aggressive and territory marking.

Utterly ridiculous no other group gets these privileges- if I walked into the middle of small heath in my robes and started practising occult rituals outside a mosque I bet the police wouldn’t protect me!!

Nonsense argument.
The main objection is that he's a lone man in an area designated for children.

Performative praying should be done in a mosque or a private room designated for such activity wherever that may be. He's disrespecting children by invading their space - nothing very "good" about that.

Blasphemy laws just give special privileges to misogynistic institutions at the expense of free speech which is the cornerstone of democracy.

Anyone who wants blasphemy laws is intolerant and authoritarian and probably not suited to living in a democratic country - not to worry, there are many undemocratic countries they can choose to live in instead.

In the bin with blasphemy laws.

Invading a children's space rather cancels out the benefit of praying don't you think? Plus it's just plain weird for any lone man to go to a space designated for children. Libraries are for reading and borrowing books.

Religion should be a private affair - he could have gone to a mosque.

Yes it’s often the case on mn.

Exactly! wouldnt be so deliberately flippant about any other religion.

I don’t see why the children’s area can’t just be for them.

Of course, this goes without saying, but only if they intend to use it as a library, or otherwise a quiet activity at an appropriate section of the library.

So an adult quietly knitting in a corner of the non kids sections, fine. An adult doing yoga at the kids section, not fine. I’m also against any type of religious activity in libraries, unless there’s a dedicated prayer room.

Beware -the Gov are bringing in legislation to cut Islamophobia so depending on the mood of the police telling a praying Muslim to shift,particularly if he is praying, could land you with a fine /sentence/ hate speech against your name
ADefinition of anti-Muslim Hostility
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-definition-of-anti-muslim-hostility

It is like the trumped up accusations of transphobia but renamed Islamophobia - and the one thing it is unlikely to do is bring people closer together -I hate when one whole group is prioritized over the rest of the population -helping drug addicts or boys failing in school is not the same

Exactly

why does it have to be so in your face

as I said upthread the Pharisee type praying in Luke

he could have prayed quietly facing East on a seat

That makes absolutely no sense Catholics are not required to say particular prayers that involve a ritual of physical movements five times a day.

Yanbu

a lone man taking up space and being exabisionist in the children area is not ok. Libraries have quiet room/meeting rooms why did he not ask to use one of those ? Same for the sleeping woman not ok in children area.

I don’t think it’s racist to say it’s not appropriate. Our local library currently has Ramadan themed colouring, if they put on a children learning event that would be appropriate. They had story telling and crafts in the children section for dwali, literally no space to actually get to the books or sit and read- completely appropriate because it was child focused activities and for them to learn. Same as the singing sessions they do for toddlers. Might be annoying but not inappropriate.

single man moving the mat so he can pray loudly is not child focused and not appropriate

The thing is, you know damn well that if a Catholic priest did the same thing, the sane people defending this man would be up on arms (rightly) questioning his motives.somehow people have been brainwashed into this tow tier double think. People need to seriously start questioning why they think like they do

we are inherently designed to spot things out of place - I lone man picking an area designed to attract children for some performative prayer (and such prayer is designed to be performative for several reasons -an omniscient god would hear even the most silent and still prayer) is out of place esp in the UK. Why the children’s area??? Why not the loos or the supermarket or the street. It’s even worse than drag story time.

Libraries are secular buildings. They are for everyone- not for someone to self designate the area for a religious ritual. I would have taped him on the shoulder and informed him of such. I find his choice of prayer venue aggressive and concerning. We should legislate against this kind of thing

I do understand about unaccompanied adults settling down in the children's area. That can be inappropriate for reasons of space or safeguarding.

I think one of the librarians upthread said unaccompanied adults weren't allowed in there, and remembered when I recently tried to look round the childrens area of a library the librarian followed me in, so I went straight out and to the adult fiction area, and she followed me out, all in under a minute. It was clear she'd gone in because I did. There was nobody else in the library at all.
More recently I went in and there were others about but none in the children's area and the librarian was on the phone, so I was able to go in and choose a book, which I then took to the adult fiction area to start reading.

You can be a Pollyanna all you like, but actually I think you're just being deliberately disingenuous: a lone man wants to park himself in the children's library because he 'likes the atmosphere'? Yes, of course he does. There are plenty of other places in the library for adults if they just want to sit down for a while.

We have an exclusions and warnings list of banned customers as long as your arm. There are a lot of unpleasant people out there and unfortunately large city libraries don't always attract people who love reading or enjoy hanging around children just for the joy of it.

Appropriate (adjective) means suitable or proper for a particular situation, purpose, or person.

Monopolising a public area designated for children by a random man to perform a strange supernatural worship ritual would fit this definition. It’s not really practical to write an explicit list of everything that people shouldn’t do, designating it a children’s area seem to work on the whole as people generally have common sense and respect for others. Now when people ask things like well does that mean that lone men can’t go in there and read children’s books, you do begin to question their motives. Are people against children having a designated area in libraries or somethin? Is the other 98% of the library not enough for lone men?

What does that mean?

What? I do wonder what goes through some people's minds.

To be perfectly honest , libraries attract some people, that just should not be in the children's library.

To repeat what I said upthread..I doubt the man was given permission to pray in the Children's section. I find this more unlikely than the original post that he was doing this.

What does 'appropriate' mean here?

It's against the by laws of the library to sleep there. Staff should be waking the person up and asking them to move out of the children's area

The prayer one is tricky, as often people are looking for a quiet spot to do prayers and it may have been they were given permission to use that area if it was empty at the time.

Adults in children's areas is not appropriate and shouldn't be happening if there is an alternative

Why is it an issue if a lone adult 'settles down' in this space? Maybe they like the atmosphere. Maybe they just want to sit down for a while. The idea that a lone adult is a problem is just weird.