A Christian street preacher has lost his appeal in the UK’s highest court. He was arrested in 2017 after protesting the London Bridge terror attack. Ian Sleeper, 58, was arrested for displaying signs which the police said were offensive to Islam. He was charged under the controversial section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. His arrest was captured on video, and he was held for 13 hour
The pastor “was arrested outside Southwark Cathedral on 23 June 2017 under controversial section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 for causing “harassment, alarm and distress” for displaying a sign which read: “Love Muslims, Hate Islam, Jesus is love and hope,'” according to Christian Concern. This organization represents Christians in the increasingly secular United Kingdom.
Their press release offered additional context to the protest: “Weeks earlier, on 7 June 2017, on London Bridge and at Borough Market, which is adjacent to Southwark Cathedral where Sleeper was protesting, Islamic terrorist attacks had taken place, killing eight people and injuring 48.” The pastor was released without charges but then sued the police for wrongfully arresting him.
“However, in a concerning judgment for free speech, the High Court has now confirmed that the arrest was lawful: in his ruling, Justice Sweeting rejected the idea, often expressed by Christians, that you can ‘hate the sin but love the sinner,'” Christian Concern says. The law he was arrested under, which has been highly controversial, “has been used to stifle speech and debate on the grounds that a listener may be offended or feel insulted.”
The judge said that there was a real danger of public disorder stemming from the pastor’s protest. ” “The circumstances were very different from those that confronted the police in this case where they were concerned with a risk to public order in the febrile atmosphere that followed major terrorist incidents and where they had to make a decision on the spot,” the Judge said.
The pastor explained his reaction to the judgment, “When I went to Southwark, I was appalled by the violence that had been seen on London’s streets weeks earlier… I was peacefully and calmly protesting the ideas behind the attacks and pointing to Jesus as the only hope in the middle of the tragedy and fear.” He added, “How I was treated was completely wrong. The police have never apologized and continue to believe that what they did was right. ”
The pastor concluded, “There is no consistency in policing over these matters, and what has happened to me and on our streets in the past month should be of grave concern to many.” The Chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, also made a statement on the case. “There was no sense of proportion or attempt to understand what Ian Sleeper was trying to do on that day. To put Ian Sleeper in a cell for over thirteen hours was totally disproportionate,” she said.
Watch the Video of the Arrest Here:
“Ian explicitly said love Muslims. He meant it – everything about his character and experience says as much. He is a dedicated and effective evangelist who understands that Islam gets in the way of people finding God and experiencing eternal life,” she concluded. “How can you be free to criticize Islam in public if the words you mean and explicitly say are ignored in the courts?”
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