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

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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?

But you think it though don’t you?

I did.

Agreed, total madness.

For someone so forceful and righteous in their language and views, you don’t really seem to understand your own ideology very clearly. Is it ‘the religions where you get chocolate are okay’?

Yes, it's not the job of a library to provide someone with somewhere to kneel on the floor and start praying. If I worked there I would ask him to leave, even if he was doing it in the adult's area.

What is this now?

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.”

There is a mosque within easy walking distance of Inverness Library.

I agree that libraries should be a hub for the local community, but I don't think that their public spaces are suitable for visible shows of praying, whether that's by Muslims or Wee Frees.

In my opinion, no one should be using the children's library space in particular for anything other than reading/choosing books with children (or taking part in children's events like Bookbug sessions). The same goes for people bedded down to sleep. (There are various places welcoming homeless people during the day in or near the centre of Inverness.) It is hard enough to encourage families to use libraries without allowing behaviour which may discourage families to come in.

OP, I suggest that you contact High Life Highland, who operate the library service in the Highland Council area, to raise your concerns and ask what the policy is on the situations you have described.

Me not believing in something doesn’t trump anyone else’s right to have faith

..but does someone’s faith trump someone else’s right to live without having to be involved in the nonsense unless they choose to? For example a mother and children visiting a children’s area in a library.

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.

Id have sent the kids in and let them run riot. It’s the kids area, he’d have to find somewhere else

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.

Ffs

Not where ever, which is why the children’s area exists. They get their own space without it.

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.

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.

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

Yes..it's the fear of being "offensive". We know where that leads.

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?

Yes, the library needs to make sure that it stays as a pleasant and safe place for ordinary people and their children.

Yes, it constantly amazes me how keen some people are to wave away the tiniest bit of suspicion and criticise anyone that suggests it.

Maybe it’s the praying that has given them a false sense of security - it’s not like any religious man has ever been convicted of being a paedophile…. Oh wait.

This reminds me of the many threads about drag queens in children’s libraries and even those awful sexualised drag shows for babies that had a brief phase. Many people raising perfectly legitimate concerns and suspicions as we rightly should debut and man in public behaving oddly near children and a worrying number of people criticising those concerned about the men and possible outcomes.

When did some in society become so keen to wave away even a suspicion about men’s behaviour in public?

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.

It’s not the same thing. You can ignore them and do. You’re asking here for children to just wait for the man and avoid the area.

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

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

You are arguing for the man to have priority over the children and op in the allocated children’s area are you not? Is it because there is a religious element to this you are arguing that? Or is it just men in general should have priority?

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