A brave female police officer has faced down a crowd claiming she was in a “Muslim area” after she defended a Christian preacher’s right to speak.
The officer took the stance in Whitechapel, London, after a group of men surrounded them and declared the area off-limits to the preacher’s message.
The preacher, holding a microphone and Bible, was delivering his message mere yards from the East London Mosque, among Western Europe’s largest Islamic places of worship, with a capacity for 7,000 daily worshippers.
“In this country, we have freedom of speech,” she told the group of men surrounding her, explaining that the same principle applied equally to them.
When one man wearing a surgical mask asserted: “This is Whitechapel, this is a Muslim area!”
Census data shows Muslims comprise 52.2 per cent of Whitechapel’s 18,841 residents.
Another man approached to complain that the preacher was “in our community” and that Muslims do not “walk around insulting other faiths”.
The constable’s response was unequivocal: “You guys can preach about your religion the same way he is.”
Census data shows Muslims comprise 52.2 per cent of Whitechapel’s 18,841 residents
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“I understand that you guys don’t want to hear it, so I would just recommend that you walk away and don’t listen to him.”
She reminded the crowd that the evangelist was conducting his preaching in a public space, telling them: “He’s not in your home.”
The Scotland Yard constable maintained that while the men need not agree with the preacher, he was not behaving aggressively.
Scenes had turned physical when a man in a black duffel coat and mask pushed the preacher from behind, causing him to stumble forward.
One individual was filmed repeatedly shouting at the evangelist: “Your God is a Jew.”
A man who had called the police explained to the officer that the preacher had been “talking about the prophet, then he said like a donkey,” which he claimed was upsetting “hundreds of people” passing by.
He accused the preacher of “spreading hatred” and alleged he had referred to the Black Stone in Mecca’s sacred Kaaba as “a box.”
The evangelist rejected these characterisations, stating he had been quoting Muhammad “who says if a donkey brays it’s because he is seeing Satan.”
While she rejected suggestions that the preacher was inciting hatred, she acknowledged he faced a risk of assault.
The officer informed the group that CCTV cameras were monitoring the location, which she described as a “heavily Muslim community.”
