The police are enabling Islamic intolerance
by Tim Dieppe, The Critic:
Where can we provoke if not at Speakers’ Corner?
Last year, the incredibly brave Christian evangelist Hatun Tash was brutally stabbed at Speakers’ Corner, in what was evidently an attempt on her life. I wrote about the incident for The Critic at the time, and indicated that this was not the first time that she had been assaulted there.
Hatun was not deterred. She continues to bravely preach at Speakers’ Corner — the place known as “the home of free speech” — every Sunday. Just days ago, on Sunday, 26 June, she was arrested by police there after having her Qur’an forcibly stolen from her.
Yes, you read that right, she was arrested after her copy of the Qur’an was stolen from her. She had done nothing wrong herself. You can watch the footage of how the Qur’an was ripped out of her grip here. Shortly afterwards she was arrested. This is the third time she has had her Qur’an stolen from her at Speakers’ Corner. No one has ever been arrested for stealing her Qur’an, and her copies of the Qur’an have never been returned. This means that the robbers know they can get away with it and are therefore emboldened to steal again.
It is well-known that Hatun carries a copy of the Qur’an with holes drilled through it as a visual aid when engaging with Muslims at Speakers’ Corner. I have explained before that this reminds the Muslims there that one of their leading apologists admitted that the Muslim narrative about the origins of the Qur’an “has holes in it”.
This is provocative, to be sure, but is provocation not allowed in free societies? Besides, provocation can be a powerful tool of evangelists. Hatun says that one person actually travelled to Speakers’ Corner from Malaysia to ask her about what she was saying, and he later rejected Islam. Let’s remember too that Jesus was pretty provocative at times (Matthew 23).
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