Met Police releases statement on weekend demonstrations

The Metropolitan Police has released a statement following their policing of a demonstration organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain on Saturday 21 October, alongside the much larger protest organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

According to the Counter Extremism Project "Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamist movement seeking to unite Muslims under one Islamic caliphate. Hizb ut-Tahrir members have been linked to violent acts in multiple countries. The group itself has been banned in at least 13 countries, including many Muslim-majority countries."

The group is not banned in the UK.

Officers were deployed with the protest, alongside counter terrorism officers with specialist language skills and subject expertise and public order officers in the main operations room, assessing any video and photos that emerged.

Officers have reviewed a video from the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in which a man can be seen to chant ‘jihad, jihad’.

In a statement, the force said: "The word has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism.

"Specialist officers have assessed the video and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip. We have also sought advice from specialist Crown Prosecution Service lawyers who have reached the same conclusion.

"However, recognising the way language like this will be interpreted by the public and the divisive impact it will have, officers identified the man involved and spoke to him to discourage any repeat of similar chanting."

The force also highlighted photos from the protest, which show signs and banners referring to ‘Muslim armies’.

The statement continued: "While there are varying interpretations of what the language on the placards should be interpreted to mean, officers must take decisions based on the wording actually used.

"Again, this was subject to a careful assessment and no signs or banners were identified that were unlawful."

Image by Kev from Pixabay