- By Helen Catt & Henry Zeffman
- BBC Politics
The home secretary is to use a scheduled meeting with Sir Mark Rowley to discuss a pro-Palestinian protest in London over the weekend
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is to quiz Met chief Sir Mark Rowley about the force’s response to incidents during a pro-Palestinian protest.
A video posted online appeared to show a man chanting “jihad” during a rally by an Islamist group in London.
The Met said no offences were identified in the clip, which occurred at a separate event from the main march and was staged by Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Sir Mark is expected to say current laws make prosecutions difficult.
The meeting between Mrs Braverman and the Met Police chief was already in the diary to discuss the ongoing protests and combating anti-Semitism.
But a source close to the home secretary said she would use it to question Sir Mark for his views on his force’s response to Saturday’s incident.
The source said there could be “no place for incitement to hatred or violence on Britain’s streets”.
Mrs Braverman has clearly urged the police “to crack down on anyone breaking the law”, the source added.
At his meeting with Mrs Braverman, Sir Mark is expected to say there is a problem with the existing laws, that the bar is very high – under both public order and terrorism legislation – to prosecute.
The Met estimated that up to 100,000 people gathered in central London on Saturday to show solidarity with Palestinian civilians.
More than 1,000 officers were involved in policing the demonstration near Downing Street. Ten people were arrested.
The main pro-Palestine march in London attracted up to 100,000 people, and it was at a separate, smaller rally that a man is alleged to have shouted ‘jihad’
The Met said arrests made during Saturday’s march were linked to possession of fireworks, public order and assaulting an emergency service worker.
But, the force said on Sunday it was taking no further action after footage appeared online of a man chanting “jihad, jihad” at the smaller rally staged by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was close to the main march.
A statement from the force said it “had not identified any offences arising from the specific clip”, adding that the word jihad had “a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism”.
It also said no further action would be taken after it reviewed photographs of protesters holding banners referring to “Muslim armies”.
“Jihad” literally means “effort” or “struggle” in Arabic. In Islam the main meaning is an internal struggle, such as a believer’s struggle to live in accordance with their faith. Jihad can also be an outward struggle or war, which in Islamic teaching must be in self defence and within prescribed limits.
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Home Office Minister Robert Jenrick said he believed the chant amounted to “inciting terrorist violence” and needed to be “tackled with the full force of the law”.
On Sunday, he told Sky News: “Chanting ‘jihad’ on the streets of London is completely reprehensible and I never want to see scenes like that.”
But, the minister admitted it was an “operational matter” for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) whether to press charges.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government needed to look at whether there were “gaps in the law”.
He also said there had been a “huge” increase in hate crimes in recent weeks, adding: “We’ve all got a duty to take action to clamp down on hate crime whatever political party we are in.”
Political pressure
In 2021, before he became the Met commissioner, Sir Mark co-authored a report warning that there was a “gaping chasm” in terror laws allowing extremists to act with “impunity”.
The report argued that material praising Adolf Hitler, supporting Osama bin Laden and denying the Holocaust was all legal as long as it did not directly encourage violence.
“Current legal boundaries allow extremists to operate with impunity,” Mr Rowley said then. “The current situation is simply untenable.”
Under the Public Order Act, the offence of inciting violence is one that is directed at another person. Meanwhile, the offence of “encouragement of terrorism” under the Terrorism Act requires prosecutors to show that somebody was encouraging people to “commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism”.
Following the protests over the weekend, there may be political pressure on the government to tighten up the laws, and ban the Hizb ut-Tahrir group in the UK.
Hizb ut-Tahrir’s status has been a subject of political controversy for decades.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would ban the group shortly after the 7/7 bombings in 2005 as part of a plan to combat Islamist extremism….
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