British Police Arrest Christian Street Preachers for Questioning Islam, Citing "Hate Speech"

United Kingdom — A Christian street preacher in Rotherham, England, had charges dropped in July 2025 after being arrested for questioning Islamic teachings during a public conversation. John Steele, 60, was arrested on June 21, 2025, after engaging in a 30-second conversation with a Muslim woman at a public awareness stall offering support to ethnic minorities experiencing domestic abuse.

Mr. Steele asked, using a small microphone in Rotherham town centre, how Islamic teachings on wife-beating could be reconciled with the stall's message. He was referring to verse 4:34 in the Quran, which states: "Men are in charge of women… As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them."

Police bodycam footage showed officers informing him of a public complaint against him, requiring him to give his name and address for "anti-social" behaviour. When Mr. Steele refused to provide his details, officers arrested him. He was held in custody, where police took his DNA and fingerprints.

After being told he was not guilty of a hate crime, Mr. Steele asked what the incident would be recorded as. "A non-crime hate incident," the police officers responded.

In another incident in Bristol on August 2, 2025, police threatened to arrest Pastor Dia Moodley for "public order offences" after he was assaulted by Muslim men who objected to his preaching about the differences between Christianity and Islam while holding a Quran. One of the men threatened to stab Pastor Moodley.

Avon and Somerset Police officers responded by threatening to arrest the pastor twice for "breaching the peace," despite the fact that the men had pinned the Christian to the floor and tried to take the Quran from his hands. Bystanders pushed him off his ladder and claimed the Quran was their book, not his.

In March 2024, Pastor Moodley had been arrested after preaching about the differences between Christianity and Islam in Bristol, despite being the victim of assault. He was held for 13 hours in a police cell on suspicion of committing "racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence."

In January 2025, the High Court rejected the appeal of Ian Sleeper, a Christian preacher arrested outside Southwark Cathedral in June 2017 for displaying a sign that read: "Love Muslims, Hate Islam, Jesus is love and hope."

Mr. Sleeper, 58, was arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 for causing "harassment, alarm and distress." He was held in a police cell for 13 hours.

The arrest occurred weeks after Islamic terrorist attacks on London Bridge and at Borough Market on June 7, 2017, which killed eight people and injured 48. In his ruling, Justice Sweeting rejected the Christian principle of "hate the sin but love the sinner."

In February 2019, Pastor Oluwole Ilesanmi, 64, was preaching outside Southgate Underground station when he had his Bible confiscated by police and was arrested. He was later released without charge and dropped off by police in an unfamiliar area without money to get home.

The Metropolitan Police later awarded Pastor Ilesanmi £2,500 in exemplary damages for false arrest, imprisonment, and unlawful detention, including £1,000 for exceptional humiliation and degradation.

In Scotland, Pastor Angus Cameron of Cumnock Baptist Church received £5,500 in damages plus £9,400 in legal costs from Police Scotland after he was wrongfully arrested in 2022 while preaching in Glasgow city centre. Based on one unsubstantiated complaint, the evangelist was handcuffed, publicly searched, then led to a police van where he sat for just over an hour.

Two days later, Mr. Cameron was informed he would not be prosecuted, but a "non-crime hate incident report" would be logged in police records against his name.

Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, stated: "This is a clear and disturbing example of two-tier policing. It is both irrational and unlawful for officers to threaten members of the public with so-called 'non-crime hate incidents' simply for expressing lawful and peaceful views."

THE CRUSADER'S OPINION

Britain has fallen. The nation that gave the world the King James Bible, William Tyndale's martyrdom for translating Scripture, and John Wesley's open-air revivals now arrests Christians for reading that same Bible in public. Let that sink in.

When a Christian asks a question about Quranic verses commanding wife-beating, he's arrested and his DNA is taken like a common criminal. When Christians are assaulted, threatened with stabbing, and physically attacked while preaching, the police threaten to arrest the victim, not the attackers. This is not policing. This is dhimmitude with badges.

The irony burns with the heat of a thousand suns: John Steele was arrested in Rotherham, the very town where police covered up the systematic rape of over 1,400 young girls by predominantly Muslim grooming gangs for decades.

They wouldn't protect children being trafficked and tortured, but they'll arrest a Christian for asking a question about Islamic teaching on women?

Britain once sent missionaries around the world.

Now it arrests them on their own streets. The courts reject "love the sinner, hate the sin" as a legal defense while Islamic protestors call for jihad without consequence. When will the West wake up?

When Christians can't even hold a Bible without being handcuffed? Oh wait, that's already happening.

This is what happens when a Christian nation abandons its foundation. The civilization built on the Gospel collapses into tyranny the moment it forgets whose truth made it free. Britain traded its birthright for a bowl of multicultural stew, and now faithful Christians pay the price. Every arrest is a warning to the rest of the Western world: defend your freedoms now, or lose them forever.

TAKE ACTION

Support UK Religious Freedom:

• Christian Legal Centre: https://christianconcern.com
• Email: info@christianconcern.com

UK Christian Advocacy:

• The Christian Institute: https://www.christian.org.uk
• Phone: +44 (0)191 281 5664

International Support:

• ADF International: https://adfinternational.org
• Alliance Defending Freedom: https://adflegal.org

Sign Petitions:

• Christian Concern Petition Portal: https://christianconcern.com/campaigns
• Contact UK Parliament: https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/