"Please don't drink in front of my child."

There are apparently a couple of short clips showing on line where Muslims who are fasting for Ramadan are asking other non-Muslims not to eat in front of them. There was apparently also a "tweet" asking what you would do if you were eating lunch on your lunch break and a Muslim asked you not to eat because they were fasting.

The answers were fairly predictable - and not always polite. 

I might have ignored it. I am well aware that "fasting" takes place between sunrise and sunset. After that Ramadan meals can be, and often are, quite elaborate. Very devout Muslims will not even take a sip of water before sunset but I know some who will drink water. I believe the idea is to focus your thoughts on others who are poor or simply less well off than yourself.

As an idea I really do not see much in it, not when elaborate meals can be had at other times of the day. I once lived in a university hall of residence where we self-catered. There were several Muslim students there and they observed the restrictions placed on them. Not to do so would have led to reports being made to others who could influence their eventual careers. When we had a group meal together we waited until sunset. I checked to see what I was providing was acceptable and asked one of the boys to get the required meat from the halal butcher they used. 

Yes, I will go that far. I do not want to deliberately make people feel uncomfortable in that sort of setting. I believe it is right to do that. It was a group event. If I wanted to participate then I abided by what was best for group cohesion. I did not have to believe, indeed informed them politely I did not.

It was, I believe, an entirely different set of circumstances from the incident at the railway station. It was a very hot day and I try to carry water with me when it is hot, particularly if I will be out for any length of time.  I was asked, quite politely I suppose, to move to the other end of the platform if I wanted to drink. I was asked this of a Muslim man who was there with his son, a boy of about ten or eleven. 

Children are not expected to fast but some boys do from about the age of that child. I don't know if he was fasting or whether his father simply did not want him to see someone who was not fasting. 

I suppose I was fortunate in that the boom gates started to lower as the request was made and the bells started to ring. I did not need to make a decision. It was a simple matter of put the water bottle in my bag and get ready to board the train.

What would I have done? I hope I would have said politely, "I am sorry if you find it offensive but I am not Muslim and I do not observe Ramadan. Most people in this country don't, nor are we required to do so. What is more I feel you should be those who move. I am a woman. I am older than you. I am also much less mobile. Women and those older are generally acknowledged and often still respected."

Right or wrong? I admit I wanted to lash out. I wanted to tell this man that he had absolutely no right to demand that of me. It is not like someone not to smoke a cigarette or drink alcohol in front of a child. 

I thought about "Lent" as the train moved off. There were a number of people in the carriage and I wondered if any of them were observing Lent. Were they "giving up chocolate" (it seems to be a favourite or "not eating meat" (as a friend who is a nun always does) or not having their usual glass of wine with an evening meal? Were they doing something else or nothing at all? Did they even go to church?  

We used to know nuns by their habit and priests by their "dog collars". Now most nuns I know (and I know a few) wear jeans and t-shirts. Unless officiating the priests I know (and again I know a few) wear untidier jeans and t-shirts. I can sometimes pick out a member of a particular religious sect here by the way they dress and I can guess at the Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists. None of them however demand that I behave as they behave.

You can't demand respect.