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

[sunshine240778474]

Yesterday I took the kids to the local library (Inverness, scotland). The local library has a kids area. The kids area has a nice artificial grass mat for the kids to sit and read their books on.

When I entered the library there was a man who had folded the kids mat over so he could kneel on the floor and pray to Allah.

Therefore this prevented the kids from sitting on the mat and reading their books.
The man was praying for a while.

I don't have a problem with someone praying if that's what they want to do.

Is it appropriate to be doing it in the kids area in a local library?

Also, there was a woman curled up in the corner of the library sleeping. This was also in the kids area.

I've seen people sleeping in the library on a few occasions now. I've never seen it in the kids' area.

Ofcourse, I feel sorry for her if she's tired, but again is it appropriate to be using the local library, especially the kids area, as a shelter?

I left the library, and told the staff politely, I didn't find it kid friendly.

Was I being unreasonable?

@Creepybookworm most occasions I have went into this library there has been people sleeping. Without sounding judgemental a lot of them look like drug users. Again, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't have somewhere to sleep, but the library isn't a shelter. The health visitor encourages mums to take their children to the library for learning. I felt more like a shelter then a library. I don't feel safe. Again the body odour was horrendous. People sleeping with their shoes and socks off.

You could say religious types should have prayer rooms: of course they used to have publicly open churches at one time, my mum when young was annoyed that churches had to be locked up these days (or those days, in the 70s/ 80s). Some sort of public prayer space would be a good call for minority groups, like they have in hospitals or unis.

We could do a lot with the concept of community spaces, if only there was still funding and outreach for them. It’s a shame Britain’s all about money now, not citizenship, democracy etc.

What utter nonsense, this was a deliberate provocation in an attempt to intimidate.

Adults should not be allowed in the kid section without kids, regardless of what they’re doing.

I would speak to the staff and ask them to put a sign up saying they’ll be asked to leave if in their without a child.

I am surprised by the man praying in such a public space and I’m surprised he didn’t go to a church or somewhere more private and quiet like many Muslims do.

But I’m not surprised by the woman sleeping.
Many homeless people use the library as a safe, warm place to go and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I had a home but was broke and couldn’t afford electricity or the internet, so everyday I’d take my DC to the library and I’d charge my phone and use the free 30mins on the internet to send emails and look for jobs and my DC would play and read books, all whilst being warm and safe.
The library was an absolute lifeline for us.

The man praying in the kids area I would tell to move or get the staff to move. The woman sleeping I would guess is homeless so I would leave alone.

Both sleeper and person praying should be moved on.

Children's area in library is not the right place for them to be.

Staff should be managing this.

I did not mean to wander in on a deliberate goad. I don’t know Inverness library specifically
[Still like my idea though]

The bloke was performing a dominance display.

A single man in the kids section? I would tell the staff. Why would he need to go there out of the whole library.

I’ve never seen anyone sleeping in a library in my life but I live in an affluent area and all homeless people are known to the council.

Id ask the staff to move them out of the kids area though. Plus surely it’s noisy there?! Our has rhyme time etc and kids banging away on instruments !

@ElizabethsTailor Inverness Library has changed a lot since that photo. Exactly it's a big library so why are adults using the kids area, and moving the kids furniture to pray

Ahhh I work in a library and we often have people come in who are homeless as we’re warm and safe some do fall asleep but it tends not to be in the kids area and like the poster above we turn a blind eye.

As for the praying I’d probably let them finish then ask them to do it somewhere else next time!

So if I wanted to go grab some books enroute to pick up my child from nursery I shouldn’t be allowed to 😂

Why did they need to move the mat which prevented the kids sitting on it to read their books?

Both are fairly quiet activities.

was there somewhere else in the library he could have prayed?

if not the a library is probably quite an appropriate place to pray and it won’t have taken long

as for sleeping - I mean that can happen to anyone.

try and find your tolerant place

No YANBU.
It’s just another way in which men seem to be marking their territory.
Purely performative.

Nothing wrong with prayer and rest, but most definitely not in the children's reading area of local library.

I would have told him to move

You’re doing fine.

Adults aren't allowed in the children's area if they don't have a child where I am.

😆 hilarious

they don’t have anywhere else to go. Particularly during the day.

Not really, a man entering children’s area and obstructing children to worship an invisible magic deity is a performative act of aggression.

Religion should be a private matter only.
Anyone imposing their religion on others is a jerk.

Jackanory is quite appropriate for a library I would have thought

I would not risk that approach.
The man might target her on another occasion.
Religious zealots are often unstable.

I would say something at the desk or send an email instead.