Prayer school from residential home

Question

I think my neighbours are running some sort of prayer school for children in their home. I live in a residental area the school is run from monday to friday from 3:30pm to 6:00pm not sure of weekends and also in the holidays from 11:00am to 3:00pm can anybody tell me if this is allowed and if not who do i need to report it to.

Answer 1

Have you ever heard the statement "Its a free country"?! Well unless you are living in China or some other communist country, people have the right to meet in their homes and pray. Someone should report you for bigotry

Answer 2

Well depending on where this is, how loud it is, etc..it is their right.  If the chanting is really that loud then go and ask them to chant quieter..

Answer 3

WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOMEBODY HAVING PRAYER IN THEIR  HOME.

Answer 4

First of all, you don't seem clear on what is actually even going on. That would be the first thing to find out--is it actually a school? Is it just a bunch of people getting together? Is it a daycare?

Second, whether they can run a school or not in your residential area will depend on the business laws where you live. You'll have to contact the city about it. In some places, schools don't need business licences and there's no problem; in other places, running a school would require a business licence which would require informing neighbours of the proposed business and their right to talk to the city about any problems they have with it.

The real issue, of course, is why do you have a problem with this? Are we talking hundreds of kids showing up? I could see that being a problem in a residential area. Is it just a few? If it's just a few, how is it any different from somebody running a homebased daycare on your street? Why is it a problem?

Answer 5

Your disgusting.  

Answer 6

It's allowed.

Mind your own business.

Answer 7

Try ringing your local Council and asking to speak to the Education Welfare section, if it's a school, they should know about it.  

You could also try contacting the DCSF:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/index.htm

Answer 8

Well, it's impossible to say as you don't say where you are but I can't imagine there's *anywhere* on the face of the planet where one can't invite a group of your friends' kids into your own home to get together and pray*.

(*which is just one possible way in which the prayer group may be described to the authorities you want to set on them if there is anything 'unofficial' going on!)  

One wonders just what your *real* problem with this prayer group is? Why should it bother you what the neighbours are getting up to in the privacy of their own home? Is it the noise they make, the comings and goings of increased traffic or just plain ol' stickybeaking and/or your own prejudices?

My guess'd be the only way you could 'get' the neighbours is if they are running an actual business from their residence without having all the necessary insurances, tax regos, licences, paperwork etc (but then they'd prolly have to be advertising (more than by word of mouth) and charging money). I'm pretty darn sure that you can't report them just because they're praying or inviting other people (kids) into their home to pray: who are you going to report them to? what are you going to report them for? Unlicensed praying? Praying without due care and attention? The idea that you're going to be able to report your neighbours for running something such as a kids' bible study or prayer group (and somehow be taken seriously by the authorities at the same time!) is absurd.

(Plus have you considered how awkward & uncomfortable the relationship between you and the neighbours is likely to become if you go ahead and make any official complaint about them? After all, you'll still have to live next door to each other!)

Incidentally, I'm a non-religious, non-praying, agnostic kid from (probably) the most secular country on Earth; hence I have absolutely no vested interests in enforcing your neighbours' rights to practice their religion, pray, help parents to raise the kids in their community within their personal faith and culture (whatever that might be). There's no law that I know of that says they're not free to do all those things and more though within the privacy of their own home!

(I know plenty of communities where the authorities'd probably be glad that the kids are attending your neighbour's 'prayer school', official or not; better than having the kids hanging around on street corners boozing, having under-age s*x and bashing little old women for their pensions!)

EDIT: Have you tried talking to your neighbours about this? Do you know how the other people living in your cul-de-sac feel? Surely there are always going to be inconveniences to you and your life and what you want to do and how you want to live when you choose to live somewhere that brings you into close proximity with other people. That's just life.

Anyway, it sounds like a problem that you ought to be trying to solve more through communication, discussion & mediation than you simply running off to the authorities and complaining behind their backs. After all, if you have a right to relax in your own home, so do they...and for all you know, to them, that might mean having the right to invite other members of their community round to chant together for several hours a day.

Ultimately, methinks this is an issue you're only really going to solve through compromise (rather than confrontation). Or by moving house! Go and talk to them, get to know them, find out what it is they are doing and then you can explain how it is affecting you. After all, for all we know, your neighbours don't even know how you feel and how you're being affected by their activities. And the chances are that they are not mind readers...