A Christian street preacher who was arrested after challenging Islam in public has said he is "relieved" by the Crown Prosecution Service's decision not to pursue a case against him.
John Steele, 60, was arrested in Rotherham town centre on 21 June after he asked a Muslim woman what the Quran said about domestic violence - a reference to a controversial verse, Quran 4:34, which talks about husbands striking their wives.
Mr Steele then shared with the woman that in the Bible, the Apostle Paul commands Christian husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.
At the time of the exchange, Mr Steele had been manning a stall offering support to Pakistani and other ethnic minority women experiencing domestic abuse.
Four officers later arrived at the stall demanding his personal details, and body cam footage showed him being threatened with arrest if he failed to comply.
When Mr Steele objected that he had not done anything wrong, one of the officers told him they wanted his details because they had reason to believe he had been engaging in "anti-social behaviour". Another officer told him they required his details to record a non-crime hate incident.
After refusing to give his details, he was arrested under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2002 and taken to the police station where he was detained, fingerprinted, and DNA-swabbed, according to the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which has assisted him in his case. Although a court date was set, the Crown Prosecution Service has since decided against continuing the case as it was “not needed in the public interest".
Responding to the news, Mr Steele said he had been "treated like a criminal" for sharing the message of the love of Christ.
“This wasn’t about me. It’s about the erosion of our hard-won freedoms and the right to speak truth in love," he said.
“I’ve never been arrested in 25 years. I wasn’t there to cause trouble, I was there out of love, to share hope and to help people understand the love of Christ.
“When I heard the charges were dropped, I was relieved, but also angry. So much time, energy, and stress wasted for nothing.
“I go out because people are hurting. I won’t let fear silence the gospel.“This country was built on the Bible. We need boldness and must not be intimidated in this hour.”
The CLC said the incident raised questions about policing priorities and the erosion of Christian freedom in the UK.
It said Mr Steele's arrest was further evidence of "two-tier policing", especially in light of widespread condemnation about police failings in connection to the systemic sexual assault and rape of young girls in Rotherham by predominantly Muslim men.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the CLC, condemned the police’s actions and said her organisation would be looking into whether a non-crime hate incident had been recorded against Mr Steele's name.
“We welcome the fact that this case has now been dropped, but it should never have progressed as far as it did," she said.
“This is a clear and disturbing example of two-tier policing. It is both irrational and unlawful for officers to threaten members of the public with so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’ simply for expressing lawful and peaceful views.
“The irony could not be more striking: a Christian preacher is arrested for questioning Islamic beliefs in the very town where police failed for years to protect vulnerable girls from Islamic grooming gangs.
“South Yorkshire Police are once again undermining public trust."
