public prayer?

Tonight at the cafe i had a slightly unusual request- a fellow with a bit of a thick accent, leaned over the counter and asked me something, very quietly, and rather nervously, as if he was embarrassed to be asking. I couldn't understand clearly at first, i heard something like " need a place..." and something that sounded like " play" initiallly, i though he was a musician asking about the possibility of a gig here, but gradually it dawned on me that he was asking if it was ok for him to PRAY here, which, you have to admit, is a request for permission you don't hear every day. My Christian thinking ( this being a pseudo-christian cafe) had me respond, with a puzzled expression, " yeah. sure. why not?" Being from the sort of perspective where prayer is no particular " big deal" , a simple conversation with God that can be entirely silent, in one's head, or involving, at most, some slightly odd looking bowing of ones head, i couldn't imagine having to ask. he was by himself. I wasn't imagining a noisy pentecostal prayer meeting . I gestured to the couches or tables, fishing a bit , trying to understand the request. " You just looking for a quiet place?"
He looked even more uncomfortable and embarassed.
" No, you see... i have to , you know, stand up, kneel, lie down..."
He performed a quick mime of the actions, and i instantly recognized the distintive pattern. He was a muslim, and he needed a place to do his regular prayers, facing mecca. Now i was embarrassed, for having misunderstood, for the strange sort of embarrassment that accompanies religous things, supposedly personal, private things, happening outside their accustomed boundaries. Which is odd, because i'm a Christian, and i certainly haven't always been private about it. Maybe i was embarrased beacuase i was a christian and he was a muslim, embarrassed for the crusades, for Iraq, for all that nonsense and bad blood, and the assosiated baggage that accompanied our respective fatihs, embarassed because this young man was embarassed, having to humble himself before a foreigner and ask permission to take part in a normal part of his everyday life in my cafe.
I assured him that i had no problem with it, and he gestured to the other people in the cafe. I tried to assure him it wouldn't bother anybody, but he still somewhat sheepishly set up his samll mat in the back of the cafe. I was distacted by business, and didn't want to add to his discomfort by staring, so he was finished before i noticed.
it was a bit of an odd moment, but since i've been trying to figure out what should be so odd about it.