Cleric Cleared After Detainment and 'Non-Criminal Hate Incident' Charge for Challenging Quranic Scripture
In a recent turn of events, John Steele, a Christian street preacher, has been vindicated following his arrest in Rotherham town centre. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has discontinued the case against him, stating that prosecution was 'not needed in the public interest.'
The incident, which was captured on police body cam footage, took place at a public awareness stall offering support to ethnic minorities and Pakistani women experiencing domestic abuse. Steele was arrested under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2002 after engaging in a 30-second conversation with a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.
During the conversation, Steele shared his beliefs, referencing a passage from the Bible (Ephesians 5:25) where Paul the Apostle commands Christians to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves the Church. The conversation, however, centered around the controversial verse in the Quran (4:34), which discusses men being in charge of women and scourging them as a form of punishment.
Following the arrest, Steele was surrounded by four police officers who demanded his personal details and threatened him with arrest if he failed to comply. He was later detained, fingerprinted, and DNA-swabbed at the police station, but no further charges were brought against him.
The arrest sparked widespread concern over policing priorities and the erosion of Christian freedom in the UK. Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, condemned the police's actions and expressed concern about a 'two-tier policing' system. Williams has also stated that she will investigate whether a 'hate incident' has been wrongly recorded against Steele's name, despite his complete vindication.
Steele, a man with a back story of Christian redemption, having been a former heavy drinker and militant during the 1984 miners' strike, but becoming a born-again Christian in 1987 after reading Psalm 7, expressed his relief but also anger as he felt time, energy, and stress were wasted for nothing.
The motivation for getting Steele's details appears to be to record a Non-Crime Hate Incident (NCHI) against his name. In the body-worn video footage of the arrest, Steele can be seen holding a banner quoting verses from the Book of Acts and 1 Timothy.
This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of freedom of speech and the need for fair and impartial policing in the UK. It is crucial that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, is treated equally under the law.
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