At the pool - other adult behavior

[CousCousDefinitely]

I was at our local leisure centre today. It's a private hotel one, if it makes a difference, so it's users would be a combination of members, hotel guests and you can also pay for a day pass. I'm a member.
It was busy as it is normally on a Saturday afternoon. There were two guys I hadn't seen before in the lanes section (where you can do serious swimming, up one side and down the other). I wanted to do 50 or so lengths but it was tricky as it was me and them in the section and they were doing handstands, diving in (under the no diving sign) and generally getting in the way. I get this with children sometimes but not usually adults in their 30s or 40s.
Im laid back so I just sort of went around them as best I could. They were swimming under me and making me nervous. So after about 20 lengths I gave up.
I went into the steamroom and they arrived in about 10 minutes after and stared at me up and down in a pervy uncomfortable way.
So they it clicked that the pool annoyance was probably on purpose.
I left and was pissed off that it made me felt so uncomfortable.
I was pissed off that I couldn't do anything to stop them staring, that they'd intrrupted my swim and that I couldnt complain to the lifeguard while I was there as it would have been awkward, or as I was leaving as I didn't want to appear racist. The two guys were speaking Arabic to each other which is pretty uncommon in my town.
My dh went to the pool after I got home, for his turn at a bit of child free peace and I described them to him. He came back and said they were in the hot tub (this was 2 hours after me) so they'd probably got a day pass and stayed to piss off more people.
Was I unreasonable to just leave and say nothing and if so, what should I have done or said? Either to them or to the lifeguard. I feel like such a chicken.

Yes you do zzzzz. Stop being disingenuous. You've spent the entire thread moaning about the OP relating her personal experience because it doesn't fit in with your dogma, and you clearly object to a certain group being identified as being involved in negative behaviour.

Yet now you're defending your own right to relate your own personal experiences as you wish. What a bloody hypocrite.

"maybe have you forgotten how terribly women who were pregnant and unmarried were so cruelly treated often in convents and this is recent history why because they were women who sinned hmm"
You're getting the usual one-sided warped anti catholic view from the mass media. Minority of cases used to try to make a non-existent point.
The Church was the first provider of education in this country, that is a historical fact.

To those who say Islam is irrelevant to Muslim Arab's (sexual) behaviour, have a look at this:
www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/muhammads-sex-life.aspx

It is irrelevant in that whatever these men would say was their reason for behaving inappropriately is totally irrelevant. They should have been reported and booted out by the lifeguard.

Oh yes, and the fact that the abusers in Rotherman were Asian and Muslim was irrelevant as well?

Rotherham more like...

What do you propose solomon? That we treat every Muslim man as a potential rapist?

You don't know many Catholics then zzzzz, or the ones you do have probably been brainwashed by the crappy reporting in the media.
www.catholicleague.org/myths-of-the-magdalene-laundries/

If the majority of a certain crime was done by a set of people, then surely you would like to understand what is driving them to commit it? If 95% of all stealing in UK was done by people with red hair, for example, I think people would be asking, why?
Oh I forgot. It's against the religion of PC to tell the truth about Islam.

More abuse happened (and happens) with the home than in the orphanages & churches, (this is statistical fact) but again, this goes against the PC anti Catholic bias in the Media. Nowhere did I excuse the terrible things done, but to use the abuse cases to tar the Church with a black brush is really stupid. It's as though you are saying that every orphanage and women's home was rotten. It only confirms the anti Catholic prejudices evident in so many mindless people in UK.

If we start looking at abusive behaviour as something done by others, from other communities, how much harder is it going to be for a women to be believed if her abuser is a white middle class pillar of the community type.

Each allegation of abuse should be considered on its own merits, irrespective of the race, religion and class of the abuser and the abused.

The OP felt uncomfortable and harrassed by two men. Their race and religion is irrelevant. She should have felt like she could complain so their behaviour could be dealt with. Focussing on the race or religion of the perpetrator makes reporting more difficult as fear of appearing biased does create problems.

The language they spoke was irrelevant and the fact the OP focussed on it was unfortunate as it immediately took the thread on a predictable route. I'm also impressed the OP managed to recognise Arabic without much exposure to it as the different dialects do sound very different e.g. Gulf Arabic, Egyptian Arabic and Moroccan Arabic have different sounds and words. DH is North African and Muslim and so we have Arabic TV on most days so I have heard a lot of regional Arabic. DH has also managed to survive in UK without assaulting anyone or demeaning women for over 20 years.

So for all those posting about how badly Muslim men behave remember you are living in a country (UK) where on average over the last 10 years 2 women a week have been killed by their partner or ex-partner. A country where there is still a demonstrable gender pay gap in the public and private sector. Instead of focussing only on the perceived problems with a relatively small number of immigrants perhaps we should be looking at the whole picture and saying that all men, no matter what their ethnicity, religion, class etc. should be treating women as equals.

So you're annoyed with people supposedly being prejudiced against Catholics while showing off your own anti Muslim prejudice. Pot calling kettle black springs to mind.

I was raised Catholic, schooling and fairly catholic community. Have no time for it now, had enough of the sexism, men keeping women under their control, hidding their peadophile priests and horrors such as the launderies in Ireland. I imagine if i had grown up muslim, then i'd feel exactly the same against Islam.

"So for all those posting about how badly Muslim men behave remember you are living in a country (UK) where on average over the last 10 years 2 women a week have been killed by their partner or ex-partner. A country where there is still a demonstrable gender pay gap in the public and private sector. Instead of focussing only on the perceived problems with a relatively small number of immigrants perhaps we should be looking at the whole picture and saying that all men, no matter what their ethnicity, religion, class etc. should be treating women as equals."
Do you think they put a priority on educating girls in Muslim dominated countries? Have a look at the situation in Northern Nigeria. Women can't even drive in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is vile regime with an appalling human rights record. DH has been there on Hajj and as a Muslim man who is a mother tongue Arabic speaker he still hated it. However, in his home country which is over 90% Muslim, women drive, go to university, work as doctors and lawyers.

Have a read of the weblink I posed zzzzz. You probably just know cafeteria Catholics or other Catholics so stupid to tar whole institutions of their church with the same brush. In any case, hardly people worth consulting.

Chaz -

Ok, i'll ignore the fact that i've never experienced anything as bad as the blatant and threatening almost everyday harrassement and assault in the 40 odd years of living in the UK, as i experienced in my much shorter time in a few muslim countries - which was also the story of the other women i met along the way. I believe the majority of muslim men probably won't harrass or assault me but i won't pretend some muslim countries are just like the UK in how many women are treated in this regard.

Guess, i'm one of "the stupid catholics" then. How dare i question or have an opinion!

You're twisting things round extremely perversely now zzzzz.
Pick and choose what they choose to believe in, like you do in a cafeteria (pick and choose a selection of food).... wow can't you deduce things yourself? With a British education, probably not..!