The arrest of Christian preacher Hatun Tash for wearing an 'offensive' T-shirt at Speakers’ Corner

This week saw the 150th?anniversary of the Parks Regulation Act, a piece of legislation that granted legal protection to that small portion of Hyde Park we know today as ‘Speakers’ Corner’. FSU General Secretary Toby Young was invited to the birthday celebrations for a site that’s become something of a symbol for the importance of free speech and freedom of expression in this country. As it happens, for media purposes Toby ended up addressing a sizeable crowd not just once, but twice (you can watch a clip?here). Given Speakers’ Corner’s rich cultural history of impassioned debate, dissent, protest and vulgarity, it seemed entirely appropriate that during the second of those addresses Toby had to contend with a good deal of heckling. “Just as well speech is free, innit, because no one would pay to hear this rubbish,” said one, according to his piece in the?Spectator?about the experience.

Still, those parts of his speech that were audible were well worth listening to. “In spite of all the recent assaults on free speech,” he said, “we should take the time to celebrate the fact that this marvellous place has existed and has provided a platform for people with a huge range of different views to speak for 150 years.”

Later, Toby joined Mark Steyn on?GB News?to discuss the state of free speech in the UK. “Are we losing the habits of free speech?” Mark asked. Arguably, free speech was on a much surer footing 150 years ago, Toby said. The most celebrated defence of free speech ever written, John Stuart Mill’s?On Liberty, had only been published 13 years before Speakers’ Corner was given legal protection, and the general support for free speech – indeed, for the philosophical foundations of free speech – among the British intelligentsia at that time was much greater than it is now.

The day before the 150th?anniversary, the Metropolitan Police decided to mark the occasion in their own inimitable way by arresting Hatun Tash, an ex-Muslim turned evangelical Christian (Christian Concern) and member of the FSU. Hatun regularly debates the Qur’an at Speakers’ Corner, usually at great personal risk. In May of last year, for instance, a mob?surrounded her screaming for her blood. In July,?another mob dragged her to the ground. Later that month, she was stabbed. In October, she was?punched in the face.

Footage of the most recent?incident?shows Hatun being attacked, robbed and then surrounded by an angry group, before the police move in to arrest her and drag her away in an arm-lock while the crowd cheers gleefully. Having strip searched her and kept her in a cell overnight, they then released her without charge. As birthday presents go, it probably wasn’t quite what Speakers’ Corner was expecting from the Met.

According to Hatun, whom Toby bumped into at Speakers’ Corner after her release, one of the things the police said to her by way of explanation was that some of the people in the park thought that her t-shirt, which reproduced one of the?Charlie Hebdo?cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, was offensive. “So what?” you might think. Being offensive isn’t against the law – at least, not yet.

In the wake of Hatun’s stabbing last year, the?Mail?reported that the Met was actively reviewing how to police Speakers’ Corner. If its new policy is to defuse tensions by forcibly denying citizens’ their right to freedom of expression simply because a mob finds what they have to say offensive, then free speech in the country of John Stuart Mill’s birth really is – as Toby put it on Mark Steyn’s show – “on life support”.

It’s also worth noting that, other than Toby’s piece for the?Spectator, his appearance on?GB News?and a few wobbly, handheld videos uploaded to YouTube, the media have had nothing to say about this latest infringement of a Christian’s right to free speech and freedom of expression. Sometimes that which is left unreported can reveal as much about a society as that which makes the headlines.

We have written to the acting commissioners of the Metropolitan Police about the arrest of Hatun Tash, a letter you can read?here. We’ve asked for a justification or, if they cannot provide one, an apology.