WESTMINSTER : Protest and witness outside of Parliament over dangers of Islamophobia legislation

By Pastor Peter Simpson

Pastors Peter Simpson and John Sherwood staged a witness and time of public preaching time outside of the House of Commons in Westminster on Wednesday March 12th, with a particular emphasis on the grave concern felt by Bible-believing Christians at the establishment by the Government of an ‘Islamophobia Council’ to look into the whole issue of redefining ‘Islamophobia’. Their task is to deal with the increasing problem, as the Government sees it, of anti-Muslim prejudice in the UK. The preachers had with them special posters and a specially prepared leaflet on the subject produced by the Christian Watch organisation, and which was written by Pastor Simpson.

Far from their being anti-Muslim prejudice under which Muslims are labouring, Islam seems to be ever increasing in numbers and influence in the UK, and if there is in a few quarters serious criticism of Islam, this in no way implies any hatred for Muslim people or prejudice against them personally. There is, however, genuine concern in the country about Islam’s inability, because of its very nature, to integrate into British culture and into the country’s Christianity-based civilisation. It needs to be remembered that Islam is an all-pervasive political and social system, as well as a religion, and the goal of any faithful Muslim adhering to its core teachings nothing less than the Islamisation of the whole earth.

The preaching by the pastors outside of Parliament was of course in the context of the Christian loving his neighbour. Such love, however, does not negate the duty of any true Christian to point out the dangers of all religious falsehood and error which are contrary to the Biblical revelation. Christian love does not demand weakness and the abandonment of primary Christian teaching in order to promote what is called multicultural community cohesion.

The posters on display read as follows : 1) ‘Islamophobia legislation is a threat to free speech, especially of Christians. It represents a pro-Islamic blasphemy law’; 2) Christians love their Muslim neighbour, but must be free to criticise Islam on Biblical grounds”; 3) ‘Christians are persecuted in Islamic lands. It is not hatred to highlight this and condemn it’; 4) The Lord Jesus Christ says that He is the only way. That means that other religions are false. Christians must have the freedom, in love, to say so’. It was encouraging to see members of the public walking by carefully reading them.

Islam refutes uncompromisingly the very heart of the Christian message, namely the deity of Christ as the eternal Son of God appearing on earth as a man, and His sacrificial death upon the Cross as the only means of atonement between God and the sinner. In short, Islam and Christianity are completely irreconcilable. As far as Christians are concerned, to deny Christ’s deity and Sonship is to deny God the Father also. So we are not in the realm of two mildly different approaches to worshipping the same God. Any faith system which denies the deity of Christ, and His unique mediatorial role, is not worshipping the God whom Christians worship.

This is why the preaching outside of Parliament strongly criticised the recent holding of an Islamic Iftar event in St. George’s Hall, Windsor Castle on March 2nd. This event included Islamic prayer, and that is the crunch issue; it was in effect an act of Islamic worship endorsed, obviously because of the venue, by the Supreme Governor of the national Church. We must take this on board. This was an act of worship not directed to the one true Trinitarian God (Muslims openly deny the Trinity).

The chief executive of the Ramadan Tent Project who organised the Windsor Castle event praised King Charles for his commitment to ‘community cohesion’. One might courteously ask, however, how many mosques, either in the UK or anywhere else in the world, would be willing to host Christian pastors offering up prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ as being the final prophet to bring God’s revelation to mankind, the fully divine Son of God, and the only way for sinful men to reach heaven?

The leaflet which was handed out in Westminster pointed out that all around the Islamic world Christians are being severely persecuted for their faith. Of the top 12 persecuting countries in the Open Doors World Watch List for 2025, in no less than 10 of these the persecution is at the hands of Islam . Therefore, Christians must have the freedom to criticise and condemn Islamic teaching and practice. We must be free to assert that Jesus Christ is the only way. Also, the Government must have a proper regard for Britain’s distinctively Bible-based Christian identity, which is integral to the very constitution of our nation.

After the witness at Westminster Pastors Sherwood and Simpson moved on to Marble Arch and preached the precious gospel of salvation there for a while. May the Lord be pleased to use these proclamations of Biblical truth in the capital city to His own glory.