UK Government officials are “disturbed” by the chants of “jihad” at a pro-Palestine rally over the weekend—and by the Metropolitan Police’s failure to intervene.
Around 300 supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group which former prime ministers hoped to ban, gathered on Saturday outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in London. In footage shared online, a speaker can be heard asking: “What is the solution to liberate people in the concentration camp called Palestine?” To which the crowd responds in chant:
Jihad, jihad, jihad.
Sir Mark Rowley, the force’s commissioner, has defended his officers after being scolded by Suella Braverman. She said there can be “no place for incitement to hatred or violence” on Britain’s streets and that the Met “must crack down on anyone breaking the law.”
Transport Secretary Mark Harper also said:
The police are operationally independent, which I think is appropriate, and they will have to explain the reasons for the decisions they have taken.
In an apparent defence of its inaction, the Met said online that the term “jihad” has a “number of meanings.” But the government is presenting a more clear-cut approach to the chant, insisting that “it is inciting terrorist violence and it needs to be tackled with the full force of the law.”
Others have also commented that Met appeared less on the fence when threatening individuals holding the English flag with arrest.
The intervention from Braverman also brings to question the operational independence of the police. Sir Mark is likely to say that the government is wrong to intervene in this matter since there was no legislation under which the protesters could be arrested. Indeed, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has commented that there are “gaps in the law” over protesting which the government ought to close, though it shows no sign of doing so, despite its own complaints.
Activists are also reported to have attacked a man holding an LGBT Pride flag during Saturday’s protests. Foreign media highlights that the health status of the alleged victim remains “unknown.”
