The Met’s outrageous persecution of Hatun Tash

In June 2022, Hatun Tash, an ex-Muslim who became a Christian evangelist, was arrested by police at Speakers’ Corner in London after having her Koran stolen from her. Yes, you read that correctly – Tash was the victim of a robbery, yet she was the one arrested.

Tash regularly debates Islam at Speakers’ Corner and she frequently suffers for it. During one exchange in July 2021, she was brutally stabbed by a man wearing a black Islamic robe who was clearly aiming at her neck.

On the occasion of her arrest in 2022, she was using a large copy of the Koran with holes drilled through it. This was to remind listeners that an American Islamic theologian has argued that the story of the Koran’s preservation has ‘holes’ in it. This may have been provocative, but it is not illegal. Tash broke no laws and had done nothing wrong. Yet she was the one the police arrested.

A crowd of Muslims mocked her and chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as she was brutally frog-marched off into a police van. After being strip-searched, questioned at 4am and detained for a total of 15 hours, she was finally released without charge.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Tash subsequently launched legal action against the police for wrongful arrest and breaches of her human rights. Last week, Tash finally won her case. She has been awarded £10,000 in damages and costs from the Metropolitan Police in an admission of unlawful action against her. No apology has yet been forthcoming, however.

Remarkably, this is not the first time Tash has been wrongfully arrested after an altercation at Speakers’ Corner. In May 2021, Tash was assaulted and abused by a group of Islamic men for wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Muhammad on it. The police promptly arrested her for breach of the peace. She won a legal challenge against the police and £10,000 in damages in 2023.

The problem here is that the police seem to think that Tash offending a certain group of people is more of a crime than assault or robbery. In the name of protecting Muslims from offence, the police seem only too happy to stomp all over freedom of speech – even at Speakers’ Corner, a site associated with freedom of expression for over two centuries.

Given that Tash is frequently arrested for her speech, while those who assault and abuse her are treated as victims, it’s difficult not to see this as yet more evidence of two-tier policing. Not that more evidence is needed. Since 7 October, the reality of two-tier policing has become all too clear. We have seen police look the other way while anti-Israel protesters call for jihad or chant anti-Semitic slogans. Yet in recent years we’ve seen multiple examples of Christians being arrested merely for preaching gospel truths.

The powers-that-be are in denial. Prime minister Keir Starmer has refused to accept that two-tier policing is a problem, calling it ‘a non-issue’. In an interview with Sky News earlier this year, Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley suggested that those talking of the reality of two-tier policing are really just trying to legitimise violence.

Both Starmer and Rowley are burying their heads in the sand. The police are meant to operate without fear or favour. Everyone should be equal before the law. Instead of looking the other way, the government should mandate equal treatment regardless of ethnicity or religion. Police chiefs should also be absolutely intolerant of unequal treatment and work hard to eradicate it from the Met.

Hatun Tash provides a clear example of the dangers of two-tier policing. Her experiences show that the law is being enforced with far too much fear and favour. Until we address the problem of two-tier policing we can no longer say we live in a free and equal society.

Tim Dieppe is head of public policy at Christian Concern and the author of the Free Speech Union’s latest briefing paper, Banning Islamophobia: Blasphemy Law by the Backdoor.