A Christian street preacher who was arrested after difficult Islam in public has said he’s “relieved” by the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to not pursue a case against him.
John Steele, 60, was arrested in Rotherham town centre on 21 June after he asked a Muslim woman what the Quran said about domestic violence – a reference to a controversial verse, Quran 4:34, which talks about husbands striking their wives.
Mr Steele then shared with the lady that within the Bible, the Apostle Paul commands Christian husbands to like their wives as Christ loved the Church.
At the time of the exchange, Mr Steele had been manning a stall offering support to Pakistani and other ethnic minority women experiencing domestic abuse.
Four officers later arrived on the stall demanding his personal details, and body cam footage showed him being threatened with arrest if he didn’t comply.
When Mr Steele objected that he had not done anything fallacious, one in all the officers told him they wanted his details because they’d reason to imagine he had been engaging in “anti-social behaviour”. Another officer told him they required his details to record a non-crime hate incident.
After refusing to offer his details, he was arrested under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2002 and brought to the police station where he was detained, fingerprinted, and DNA-swabbed, in line with the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which has assisted him in his case. Although a court date was set, the Crown Prosecution Service has since decided against continuing the case because it was “not needed in the general public interest”.
Responding to the news, Mr Steele said he had been “treated like a criminal” for sharing the message of the love of Christ.
“This wasn’t about me. It’s in regards to the erosion of our hard-won freedoms and the proper to talk truth in love,” he said. “I’ve never been arrested in 25 years. I wasn’t there to cause trouble, I used to be there out of affection, to share hope and to assist people understand the love of Christ.“When I heard the fees were dropped, I used to be relieved, but in addition indignant. So much time, energy, and stress wasted for nothing.“I am going out because persons are hurting. I won’t let fear silence the gospel.“This country was built on the Bible. We need boldness and must not be intimidated on this hour.”
The CLC said the incident raised questions on policing priorities and the erosion of Christian freedom within the UK.
It said Mr Steele’s arrest was further evidence of “two-tier policing”, especially in light of widespread condemnation about police failings in connection to the systemic sexual assault and rape of young girls in Rotherham by predominantly Muslim men.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the CLC, condemned the police’s actions and said her organisation could be looking into whether a non-crime hate incident had been recorded against Mr Steele’s name.
“We welcome the proven fact that this case has now been dropped, nevertheless it should never have progressed so far as it did,” she said. “This is a transparent and disturbing example of two-tier policing. It is each irrational and illegal for officers to threaten members of the general public with so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’ simply for expressing lawful and peaceful views.“The irony couldn’t be more striking: a Christian preacher is arrested for questioning Islamic beliefs within the very town where police failed for years to guard vulnerable girls from Islamic grooming gangs.“South Yorkshire Police are once more undermining public trust.”
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