Police in UK compensate preacher for unlawful arrest, jailing

United Kingdom police last week paid R230 000 (10 000 British pounds) in damages and costs to a Christian preacher arrested, strip-searched and jailed for denouncing Islam in 2022 at a renowned public speech site in London. 

Police at Speakers’ Corner on June 26 2022,treated Hatun Tash, director of Defend Christ Critique Islam (DCCI), “appallingly”, Tash said, adding that she was humiliated repeatedly despite committing no offence. 

“We don’t live in Pakistan; we don’t live in Saudi Arabia,” Tash said, according to a press statement by advocacy group Christian Concern. “I am Christian, and by default I believe that Muhammad is a false prophet. I should be allowed to say that in the UK without being stabbed or repeatedly arrested.”

She said she was concerned that power has been handed over to Muslim mobs on Britain’s streets. Saying: “The British public urgently need and deserve better policing,” Tash called for authorities to take more action to deal with Islamic violence and intimidation at Speakers’ Corner. 

“The police, as usual, just did exactly what the Muslim mob wanted them to do,” she said. “They even sided with the men who had stolen my property, and to this day have taken no action. The police have repeatedly taken away my rights and told me that they cannot protect me because they do not want to offend a certain group of people.”

Tash on the day of her arrest had set up a camera to preach, wearing a Charlie Hebdo logo T-shirt and holding a copy of the Quran. Christian Concern stated that the book contained holes as a visual aid for her point, as stated by Islamic scholar Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, that the “standard [Islamic] narrative has holes in it.”

Video footage at the scene shows a tall man snatching the Quran from Tash and running away through the crowd. Christian friends of Tash called police to report the theft.

The video footage, however, shows the officers arriving before a jeering crowd that was shouting the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” pulling Tash away and twisting her arms behind her back before frog-marching her to a police van. 

Tash was arrested under a charge of “criminal damage,” although it was her own belongings that were stolen. Police gave Tash’s copy of the Quran to a random Muslim who later posed with it for cameras, according to Christian Concern.

She was also arrested under the UK Public Order Act 1986 for wearing the Charlie Hebdo T-shirt depicting Muhammad. Tash was jailed for 15 hours at Charing Cross Police Station. She endured a strip search, the removal of her glasses and sleep deprivation after an interrogation at 4am. 

Tash’s attorneys launched legal action against police, arguing that her human rights were breached under articles nine and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. They asserted that “even if arrest and detention is deemed lawful initially, it may subsequently become unlawful” and that “the burden is on the police to show that the detention was lawful minute by minute”.

Previous legal cases showed that religious proselytisation was afforded legal protection. The attorneys concluded that the police “did not reasonably believe that [Miss Tash] was involved in the commission of a criminal offense, concerning the first incident it was clear that she had done nothing illegal and concerning the second incident, the officers believed that the easiest solution to the problem was ‘get rid of our client.’”

Police agreed to settle the case and gave compensation to Tash.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, called police actions at Speakers’ Corner “lamentable”.

“The video footage of Hatun being marched away is deeply disturbing and demonstrates the totalitarian approach to anyone who stands against Islam in London,” Williams said. 

She said that critiquing Islamic ideology at the site could not be deemed safe, and that therefore, “nowhere is safe.” 

“The police have seen it as easier to remove Hatun rather than deal with people intimidating and threatening her,” Williams said. “The police fear of being accused of Islamophobia has meant that Sharia Law is ruling Speakers’ Corner rather than the law of the UK. This payout to Hatun is a rare admission by the police that they got it wrong. But this has now happened too often and must lead to an overhaul and review over how police are dealing with these incidents in London.”

Tash said she has dealt with “two-tiered policing” for years and stated that police have treated “Muslim mobs” at Speakers’ Corner as above the law and allowed them to “do what they like to silence debate, increasingly by any means.”

The ruling was not the first time police have compensated the evangelist, having paid her the same sum of 10 000 British pounds after an erroneous arrest in May 2021. 

Tash, who has 700 000 subscribers on YouTube, regularly debates others at Speakers’ Corner, where previously she had been stabbed and received a death threat. As a result of that attack, Islamist Edward Little in January began a 24-year prison term for plotting to murder Tash.

She donated the settlement money from the latest police compensation to an unnamed organization helping individuals leave the Islamic faith and facing persecution for doing so. 

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