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

@Blueharmonica

What I mean, because OP actually has left, is that you’re apparently not interested in religion, but are also very interested in religion. Are you unable to just not engage with things you don’t have any interest in?

We also don't have to make everything about misogyny, you know? (Probably also applies to @Annasimon)

@Blueharmonica

What I mean, because OP actually has left, is that you’re apparently not interested in religion, but are also very interested in religion. Are you unable to just not engage with things you don’t have any interest in?

We also don't have to make everything about misogyny, you know? (Probably also applies to @Annasimon)

It only doesn’t work if you’re the kind of person who wouldn’t see waiting to access Tesco as a mild inconvenience.

I bet. Your example still didn’t work.

@EasternStandard

That would be the same as you waiting for Tesco to re open after it doesn’t allow you entry for 15 minutes.

That sounds like the very end of the world.

I honestly despair. Why have we let go of common sense and replaced it with appeasement?

Prayer takes two min yabu

I would equally ignore it?

Our supermarket occasionally has people selling gas and electric in near the entrance, but inside. I don’t want that either, so I ignore them.

We’re very quick to offence, and I couldn’t imagine giving something I’m not interested in so much priority.

I would equally ignore it?

Our supermarket occasionally has people selling gas and electric in near the entrance, but inside. I don’t want that either, so I ignore them.

We’re very quick to offence, and I couldn’t imagine giving something I’m not interested in so much priority.

Yes, but you're comparing Methodists handing out stuff OUTSIDE Tesco with someone getting down on the floor to pray INSIDE the library.

Would it also be ok for the Methodists to hand out their stuff to people inside Tescos or inside the library?

A lone man in a space specifically reserved for children is never okay.
No exceptions.
No exceptions for religious nutjobs.
No exceptions for men with a fetish.
No exceptions for any men who have an interest in getting close to children they are not related to.

People's religion should be private.
Anyone imposing their religion on others is crossing a line and has no respect for others.

Libraries are for reading not for praying.

People can pray at home, in a mosque/temple/church, in a toilet cubicle which is relatively private, etc.

There is never a situation where it is necessary for a man to pray in a library and even less in an area reserved for children.

He's a dick and he knows it.

If the library is regularly used by drug users to sleep it off, and nobody approached the man without children using the children’s library about a more suitable space to pray, the issues is poor management of the library.

Id pop a letter or email for the head librarian asking about their policies on both.

I don’t see it as particularly offensive, if that’s helpful.

My ex-FIL was Methodist, and every Easter used to stand outside the local Tesco with his fellow churchgoers, giving out stuff (crosses made from card, I believe).

Tesco isn’t for that either, I’m just trying to do my shopping without the presence of God. But personally I’d just not take one, and not lose my mind that they’re on offer. It’s quite simple to just not engage in it.

In the library, nobody was making OP pray, and those few minutes of doing anything else wouldn’t have killed anyone. It’s the wrong place, just like Tesco is, but just bloody ignore it and get on with your day once it’s done/you’re out of the way.

It does seem to be the children who should just do something else, not a man who is in the wrong place.

In the library nobody was making the man pray, he could have just got on with his day and left the children alone. It wouldn’t have killed anyone.

@saveforthat I feel we are too scared to challenge people now at the fear we will be accused of something horrible. I think that's also how the librarian staff maybe feel.

I don’t see it as particularly offensive, if that’s helpful.

My ex-FIL was Methodist, and every Easter used to stand outside the local Tesco with his fellow churchgoers, giving out stuff (crosses made from card, I believe).

Tesco isn’t for that either, I’m just trying to do my shopping without the presence of God. But personally I’d just not take one, and not lose my mind that they’re on offer. It’s quite simple to just not engage in it.

In the library, nobody was making OP pray, and those few minutes of doing anything else wouldn’t have killed anyone. It’s the wrong place, just like Tesco is, but just bloody ignore it and get on with your day once it’s done/you’re out of the way.

I personally don’t believe in it, but beliefs vary - just like recollections.

Me not believing in something doesn’t trump anyone else’s right to have faith, and it’s incredibly disrespectful to use the terms you have to dismiss their belief system.

I think that’s how most sensible atheists thinks. “Not for me, but you do you.”

I don't get why it's inappropriate?what's wrong with prayers and rest?

I am a Londoner, know and have known many Muslims as colleagues, fellow parents when my offspring was at school and neighbours. I have never in my life known one who would pray like that in a public library. They pray (those who adhere to the religion), at home or in the mosque.

All I can say is this man is a very eccentric Muslim. Britain is known for its tolerance of eccentricities; the only thing to say to children who may witness this is that it takes all sorts, he is doing no harm.

It could well create a problem if loads of people did that in a public place or an average work place but they don't.

There are eccentrics and fanatics in every religion, some of whom go public and even publicly proselytise. I doubt this man was praying for very long, the ritual prayers are generally 5-10 minutes.