Passengers on the number 24 London Bus service to Gospel Oak found themselves in a state of slack-jawed astonishment as the driver pulled into a bus stop, whipped out his prayer mat and dropped to his knees in the aisle to pray.
A spokesman for Transport in London said that the driver, a devout Muslim was merely fulfilling his religious obligations and that at no point were the driver or any of the passengers exposed to risk, although the spokesperson did point out that Muslim staff had been requested to pray in allotted break periods, and not half way up a busy high street.
"You could have blown me down with a bleedin' feather," said astonished passenger Bill Poster. "He pulled into the bus stop, whipped out a high vis jacket, spread it on the floor, took his shoes off and started praying. One old girl up the back of the bus pulled her rosary beads out and started praying wiv him because she thought he was a bleedin' suicide bomber!"
The general feeling among the British public appears to suggest that such actions are taking the concept of multi-culturalism and religious tolerance too far.
"Can you imagine what the bleedin' world would be like if we all took that attitude?" Seymour Grisedale of Muswell Hill fumed. "World Cup bleedin Final, Rooney's through on the keeper in a one on one. Ten seconds on the clock. Rooney sells the keeper a dummy, goes round him. He's staring at an empty net...then fuck me if he doesn't drop to his knees, whip out his bleeding rosemary beads and rattles off a few 'Our Fathers' and 'Hail Mary's.' Because it's fackin' prayer time! Oh yeah, be fackin' great, that would. Some of these people need to get their bleedin' priorities in order."
The row rumbles on.
More as we get it.
