A ‘Walk with Jesus’ march through a predominantly Muslim a part of London has been banned by the Metropolitan Police over concerns that it’s going to result in “violence and serious disorder”.
The march was on account of happen in Whitechapel, within the London borough of Tower Hamlets, on 31 January.
“Join our parade in Whitechapel worshipping Jesus Christ on January 31, the month dedicated to the holy name of Jesus,” an commercial read.
It is the second time the Met have intervened after a planned march in the realm by UKIP last October was forced to relocate to central London.
That planned march prompted groups of mostly men, lots of them masked and wearing black clothes, to stage a counter-demonstration pledging to “defend their community”. According to media reports, chants of “We will honour all our martyrs” and “Allahu akbar” could possibly be heard, in addition to “Zionist scum off our streets”, prompting concerns from the Jewish community.
Reform leader Nigel Farage – a founding member of UKIP and twice leader of the Right-leaning party – responded to the counter-demonstration on the time by saying it was “one of the crucial terrifying things I’ve ever seen in my whole life”, and accused police of “caving in to Islamists”.
The Met have now banned UKIP’s second planned march using powers under the Public Order Act on the grounds that it will pose “a risk of significant violence to members of the community and to our officers”. The Met said the march was permitted to go ahead at a unique location in London.
Commenting on the Met’s decision, Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman said there was a “very real likelihood” that the presence of UKIP in Whitechapel “could lead on to serious disruption or serious disorder”.
“We should not saying that the UKIP protest, in isolation, will probably be disorderly. But we do know that many will find it provocative and that provocation is prone to result in an adversarial local response,” he said.
“We reasonably consider, based on the data available and on previous similar incidents, that the approaching together of the UKIP protest with opposing groups who’re hostile to its presence can be highly prone to result in violence and serious disorder.”
He continued, “It can be reckless to permit an event to go ahead once we understand there is a risk of significant violence to members of the community and to our officers. We should not doing so on the grounds of politics.
“We’re not even doing so on the grounds of whether people will probably be offended or not by their presence. We are doing so solely on our risk assessment for serious disorder.
“It’s also necessary to make clear this isn’t a ban. The UKIP protest can still happen elsewhere because it did last time.”
The Tower Hamlets Palestine Solidarity Network responded to the choice in an Instagram post by saying that the borough has a “long and proud history of standing as much as fascism”.
“We thank the Mayor, the Council, and our faith and community leaders for putting pressure on the police to guard our borough,” the network said.
Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman said he had met with local faith leaders “including many Christian friends of all denominations” to “discuss how we prepare for UKIP’s latest planned march on Tower Hamlets”.
“We are united, and won’t ever be divided by their hate,” he said.
“Our conversation this evening focused on what brings us all together – love, respect and understanding for our borough. As previously, our council will work with the police and key stakeholders to make sure that there is no such thing as a place for hate in Tower Hamlets.”
