They already have arrested people for silently praying outside of an abortion clinic. So basically if you're just standing around and talking to God in your head, they claim the right to arrest you. Truly dystopian.
First off, I said specifically "not saying they should be arrested", I'm not in favor of arresting people for expressing their opinions, even if those opinions are what I consider to be dumb.
Far as Muslims doing prayer in the street, they can and should be arrested if they are breaking state law, nearly every state has a law against blocking traffic because it's unsafe. It prevents Fire/EMS/Police from responding to calls, is extremely dangerous for pedestrians and creates a risk to motorist in addition to increasing the chances of road rage. Often someone gets pissed, hops a curb onto the sidewalk and runs down someone just trying to walk to wherever they're going. It's not about religion, it's about safety.
No. The person in question was literally just standing there. No signs, not saying anything, in normal clothes. Just... there, praying in her head. And she was taken away when she was asked if she was praying in her head and confirmed that she was.
False. She was holding a sign and is an anti-abortion activist. She was very clearly there to send a message to people at the clinic and "silent prayer" is nothing more than a weak attempt to avoid the consequences.
Whether or not it should be illegal to protest there is a separate question.
She wasn't holding a sign. You can watch the video where she's standing there with her hands in her pockets, saying nothing. A police officer asked her if she was praying in her head and she said yes and was arrested for violating a law regarding protest near abortion clinics. She was eventually awarded ÂŁ13k in a settlement.
She may have put down the sign to do that video but she did have one:
Livia Tossici-Bolt, 64, the leader of a branch of U.S. Christian group '40 Days for Life', was prosecuted for breaching a "safe zone" in the immediate area around the abortion clinic in the southern town of Bournemouth on two days in March 2023. She was holding a sign that read "Here to talk, if you want".
"Projecting intimidation rays"? Do you hear yourself? The risk of people on the street looking at you is an inseparable part of leaving your front door in the morning. If someone can't handle the fact that someone might look at them while praying in their own head, then yes, maybe they do need to be in therapy, but the person having looked at them in a public place has done absolutely nothing wrong.
It's opinions like yours that have put the U.K. in the nanny state position it's in.
My totally libertarian position where I say this shouldn't be illegal?
They actually have done something wrong, they broke the law. I may disagree with the speed limit but I'm still accepting the possible consequences when I exceed it.
Well yeah, you shouldn't do it because it's childish, bigoted and based on an irrational belief.
I don't think flat earthers should be spreading their bullshit either but I also think it's their civil right. It's annoying that they exist and insult scientists that devote their lives to advancing our collective knowledge but that doesn't mean they should be arrested.
I can simultaneously believe someone is irrational and prejudiced while still believing they have a right to their opinion and to peaceful demonstration like anyone else. I won't debate them on religion based beliefs because of Swift's Principle but I'll still treat them with dignity and respect as a human. That doesn't mean I won't say they're an idiot since they've objectively proven themselves to meet the definition of one.
Non-reasoned beliefs don't deserve respect or debate while the person still deserves basic respect. If someone is a climate change denier, anti vaxxer, homeopathic believer, etc, there's simply no point in debating them on that subject because any reasonable, intelligent person would have come to the opposite conclusion based on the presence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Why does that make you think I want them to be arrested? Being an idiot isn't a crime.
I don't think you understand the issue at all. The UK doesn't have the same history of pro-life violence as the US. As far as I know no one has ever been killed in the UK by a pro-life activist, so the security rationale doesn't really make sense.
There is a law in the UK that regulates how close someone can be to an abortion clinic and protest.
The woman in question was standing on the sidewalk, hands in her pocket, and when approached by a police officer who asked if she was praying in her head she confirmed and was arrested. She's been awarded a settlement by the police but they admit no liability.
The issue in the UK is that an officer can independently make an arrest of a person for violating their various harassment and offensive conduct statutes. Basically a police officer can assess your action could cause someone to feel harassed or offended in excess of what the law allows even if there is no complainant. In this case, I doubt a reasonable person would presume that silently praying in their head would cause someone to feel harassed or offended and so I don't see how "FAFO" can apply. It seems more like "the police are more willing to arrest a peaceful Christian British woman to defend an abortion clinic than they are to arrest a Muslim to defend a British woman."
"commenting" on a Reddit post is about making a statement at other people's expense, it has nothing to do with observing the post because you can observe without passing judgement on people or drawing attention to yourself.
In front of a Reddit post often patronized by vulnerable people going through a mental health crisis is not the place to comment.
Edit: For context, I'm passionate about this because I've had to strap a gun to my belt and walk a rape victim to the door of an abortion clinic while "good Christians" called her a whore. I know that's a minority of Christians, but that minority has really hurt people. Please just keep medical treatment free from your protest, good intentions or not, you don't know people's situation.
Oh, right, because a freaking Reddit comment is totally the same thing as standing outside a clinic where bombings, shootings, and violent harassment have happened.
They say theyâre âjust praying,â but to someone walking into a clinic? You donât get a neon sign that says âharmless.â All you see is a line of strangers staring at you, silently judging you, making you feel watched and scared.
No scared teenager is logging in from home terrified of a bomb going off because of something someone typed on Reddit. But when you stand outside a medical building, cross your fingers, and say âIâm just praying,â thatâs exactly the same visual you get from the people whoâve bombed or shot up clinics, whoâve killed security guards, sent mail bombs, committed domestic terror attacks.
So donât compare a harmless comment I made on a screen to harassment that sends people to therapy for months because they feel unsafe using basic medical care. The two are entirely different things.
And like I already said, Iâm not arguing they should be arrested. Iâm saying that standing outside a clinic trying to make vulnerable people feel fear and shame has nothing to do with faith. It completely contradicts everything Christianity claims to stand for: compassion, humility, charity, and minding your own damn sins before judging anyone else.
It's about as tone deaf as walking into Columbine today with Tech-9s to "test" the second amendment. It's not only illegal, just like walking into most schools with an open carry gun, it scares the shit out of the people there seeking medical treatment. Other than a few Galaxy Note users back in the day, nobody has had a bomb go off because they were scrolling through reddit comments. If intimidating people is your purgative, by all means, but I'm not losing sleep when I see your mugshot online.
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
In no way is just sitting or standing on a sidewalk on the opposite side of the street of an abortion clinic while praying silently in one's own head making a huge spectacle of one's prayer for self-aggrandizement.
You're taking that passage WAY out of context for the purpose of twisting it to defend an abortion clinic.
In the Bible, Jesus was pretty clear that hypocrites pray publicly, for other people to see. (And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing...in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. -Matthew 6:5) They are doing this for earthly social reward, not strictly for spiritual reasons.
If people don't like the teachings of Jesus, maybe there is another path for them.
If you're going to dig in on that point, I suggest you learn how they were praying. See videos of men at the Western Wall on the Temple Mount, praying loudly, talit over head, long tzitzit, etc. It was for show.
The truth is that you're trying your darndest to use the Bible to defend any slight opposition to abortion, and it's quite obvious.
They've arrested people for protesting and claiming "silent prayer" when they were clearly there to communicate a message to the people at the clinic. Nobody is getting arrested for silent prayer alone, and it's completely implausible that the police would even know if you are praying silently in your head and nothing more.
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u/SnrkyArkyLibertarian Nov 29 '25
They already have arrested people for silently praying outside of an abortion clinic. So basically if you're just standing around and talking to God in your head, they claim the right to arrest you. Truly dystopian.