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Muslim bus driver hits the brakes for prayer session
By David Menzies
For those who commute by public transit, it’s well known that a bus driver doesn’t merely halt his vessel to pick up passengers. Rather, drivers pulling over to go to the loo, make an ATM withdrawal or grab a Tim Bit or 10 are all part of the de rigueur delays one puts up with when enduring the indignities of mass transit.
While unscheduled coffee breaks can be irksome, consider the bizarre case of a Muslim bus driver in London, England who stunned his passengers by pulling over midway through his route so that he could pray in the aisle of his bus.
According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the driver stopped his bus without warning, removed his shoes and placed his fluorescent jacket upon the floor to use as a makeshift prayer mat. To further ratchet up the fear factor, the driver then began chanting in Arabic.
Faster than you could say “Sharia law”, tensions on the No. 24 bus were running high. The passengers – with memories of London’s 2005 public transit terrorist attacks still fresh in their craniums – feared the driver was preparing to rendezvous with 72 voluptuous black-eyed virgins in the afterlife.
Compounding the situation: nobody was allowed to get on or off the bus during the driver’s five-minute confab with Allah.
Passenger Gayle Griffiths complained to Transport for London about the incident, saying she feared the driver was a fanatic who was planning to blow up the bus.
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“[When] he took off his shoes and began praying. I was gobsmacked and quite bewildered,” said Griffiths.
“He hadn’t addressed the passengers at all, I didn’t say anything and nor did anyone else. It even went through my mind that this might be some sort of terrorist attack … because I had heard that suicide bombers prayed before attacks.”
What further added to the tension was the fact that the Mecca-facing driver was blocking the bus’s exit. “If something had happened, we would not have been able to get off,” said Griffiths.
TfL has apologized to all the passengers for the delay and has noted that all Muslim drivers are being reminded they should pray during statutory rest periods as opposed to holding up services.
However, Griffiths remains justifiably rattled by the incident.
“We are delayed often enough as it is in London,” she said.
“We live in a multicultural society, but there is a time and a place for prayer and the middle of a journey with a busload of passengers is not it.”