... to be annoyed at the Muslim who prays next to me in work?

[Beethoven]

I share a small office with two other people. A new guy has started who's a muslim, and will roll out his mat and start praying behind me. I know it doesn't hurt me, but I feel a little uncomfortable for the few minutes that he does it.

Am I being an unreasonable bigot?

Mawiol,,the bible says go out,,into the world and talk about God,not do it in private,,

i believe those who have faith should pray wherever they feel like,but the rolling of a mats is another issue,,

COOLfonz,,im religious and i pray wherever i am,not only in the privacy of my home,,but then i can talk to my God without the need to roll a mat,i can whisper and He will hear me anyway,,

Yes, discrimination on religious grounds are illegal in the workplace, as is discrimination on sexual, racial etc. etc. grounds. Tolerance and understanding is, IMO, are important in a functioning society.

For example, one of my colleagues brought her daughter into work for a quick visit with everyone today. Now an office is definitely not a place for children, but would you honestly object to that?

TONS of stuff goes on in offices that has no place in the work place - gossip, eating (and not just at lunch time; in all offices I've worked in there is eating pretty much all day long), mumsnetting, non-work phone calls, office romances (that is fecking annoying actually), facebook etc. etc.

tolerance and understanding are important.

Sorry, sugar rush from non-work related afternoon cakes outing (at work)

Not about making up the time, if you're sitting on the tills in sainsburys or closing a massive trade in a bank you cannot just stop what your doing and start praying.

Religion should be discreet and personal not inflicted on others.

Why should religion be discreet? What is your rationale for this - but that you are not religious and wish your lack of religion to be imposed on others?

I think he has every right to pray at work, but to be honest I would feel uncomfortable initially too, for just the reasons the OP stated in about her second post - I would wonder whether I was meant to sit still/be quiet/not make calls. That is because I come from a fairly Christian background and, if my parents were praying in a room, that's what they'd expect.

What I'd hope I'd have the sense to do is ask the guy if was a problem if, for example, I had a phone call during his prayer time. He'd hopefully then explain, as others have done on this thread, that you can just go about your business as normal.

I don't think that the OP was necessarily being unreasonable or bigoted to feel uncomfortable once she explained why. It was about not understanding rhe expectations of a religion and worrying you will offend. But is the lesson simply that it's not wrong to admit to someone you don't know much about their religion and want to understand more?

Surely imposing atheism on someone is just as bad as imposing a particular religion.

How does one impose athiesm?

xstitch - asked & answered

We're all atheists by default, even the most fanatical Christian doesn't believe in gods belonging to another religion. The same can be said for Muslims, they only believe in their Gods.

Atheists just happen not to believe in any.

"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
? Richard Dawkins

YANBU - there's no place for religion in the workplace.

YABU - it's doing you no harm

YANBU should you find it hilarious

Strange, because in Judaism it is believed that belief in G-d is the default, not atheism.

I won't begin on my views on Richard Dawkins ...

We are not all atheists by default - how so? You'll notice that throughout this thread we are all discussing beliefs - 'I strongly believe religion should be private' being one of these.

Posie - well, you impose atheism if you insist it is the base level to which all others should conform.

Abs - loads of religions believe God is the default. Plenty of intelligent people, plenty of anthropologists and historians, observe belief to be the norm.

Parents impose religion onto children, no child is born naturally inclined to a religion.

While women are being stoned, murdered and flogged in Afghanistan because they have to be punished according to Islam, I will not have any tolerance for any followers of Islam.

But, Alouiseg, saying that no child is born naturally inclined to a religion' is a belief. It's not a provable fact. It's my belief too, as it happens, but plenty of religious people wouldn't agree with you, and you couldn't prove them wrong any more than they could prove you wrong!

YANBU - I would be uncomfortable, too. However, if there really was no where else for him to do it then I guess there are more annoying things that people do in the office when they should be working.

Just the thread we need on the first day of Ramadan.

Ramadan Mubarak for the believers on this thread.

LRD.....Man cultivates religion, if a child were born and reared by wolves it would have no notion of God...just like us Atheists. Religion, it's language and doctrine wouldn't exist if man didn't fear death, no need. In Britain our daily lives and routines are not affected by religion, we are not a religious state and therefore religion has no place in the work place. Religious tolerance offers a place to pray, not the office floor.