Moment police officer defends Christian preacher’s freedom of speech after Whitechapel group tell him ‘This is a Muslim area’
- Do you know the preacher? Email matt.strudwick@dailymail.co.uk
This is the moment a police officer defended a Christian preacher in Whitechapel after he told him ‘This is a Muslim area’.
During the confrontation, a female Met Police officer is surrounded by men and tells them: ‘We have freedom of expression in this country.’
He continued: ‘I understand you don’t want to hear this, so I advise you to walk away and not listen to him.
‘He’s not at your house.’
The Scotland Yard officer was widely praised for how he handled the situation and was hailed as a hero in some quarters.
The situation threatened to boil over at times, with footage of the encounter on Whitechapel Road being shared widely on social media.
A man holding a microphone and a Bible can be heard preaching the Gospel in the viral footage, which is believed to have taken place on Monday, a day before Ramadan begins.
The meeting took place just meters away from the East London Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Western Europe, which can accommodate up to 7,000 worshipers for daily prayers.
The moment a police officer defended a Christian preacher in Whitechapel after a group of people said “This is a Muslim area”
A man holding a microphone and a Bible (right) can be heard preaching the Gospel on Whitechapel Road, just meters from the East London Mosque
In one of the clips, a bearded male yells at a preacher: ‘Talk about Jesus, don’t talk about Muhammad.’ Don’t say Muhammad.’
A man wearing a knee-length black sports jacket and mask then pushes the preacher in the back, causing him to stumble forward.
Another man was then heard repeatedly shouting at the preacher: ‘Your God is a Jew.’
Later, a man told the female officer that he called the police as a preacher and that he ‘talked about the prophet and then said like a donkey’, which upset ‘hundreds of people’ passing by.
He then accuses the preacher of ‘spreading hatred’ and claims that he called the Hacer Stone in the holy Kaaba building in Mecca ‘the box’.
But the evangelist denies this and says he is quoting Muhammad ‘who said that if a donkey brays, it is because he sees Satan’.
The female officer defends the preacher and explains to a group of men that ‘we have freedom of expression in this country, just as you have freedom of expression’.
‘You don’t have to agree and disagree,’ he says.
The evangelist denied calling Muhammad a donkey and explained that he was quoting the prophet: “Whoever brays a donkey says it is because he has seen Satan.”
‘You can all stand here and chat to them, but they’re not being aggressive.’
A man wearing a black surgical mask tells police: ‘This is Whitechapel, this is a Muslim area.’
According to the latest census, 52.2 percent of the 18,841 people living in Whitechapel are Muslim.
The officer continues: ‘I understand you guys don’t want to hear this, so I recommend you walk away and don’t listen to him.’
Another man approaches the police and complains, ‘He’s from our community, you don’t see Muslims walking around insulting other faiths.’
The police officer replies: ‘You too can preach about your religion like him.’
He denies inciting hatred but accepts he is at risk of being attacked. But he reassures the group that cameras are monitoring the area in what he describes as a “predominantly Muslim community.”
The Daily Mail has contacted the Met Police for comment.
