Shadow Justice Secretary, Nick Timothy, provoked an almighty fuss by tweeting about the mass ritual prayer in Trafalgar Square last week.
As I write, his tweet has had over 7 million views, and has generated a whole mass of responses. The Prime Minister called on Kemi Badenoch to sack Nick Timothy during Prime Minister’s Questions. Dozens of parliamentarians wrote to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards claiming that he had broken the House of Commons Code of Conduct, and that his comments be investigated or risk bringing the House into disrepute. On the other side, Nigel Farage called for mass Muslim prayer to be banned in public and Badenoch has refused to sack him.
It is worth quoting Nick Timothy’s original tweet in full:
“Too many are too polite to say this.
But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination.
The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination.
Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions.
And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals.
I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.
Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation.
Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration.
It was an act of domination and therefore division.
It shouldn’t happen again.”
Indicative of culture change
My main response to this is to note that we are discussing it. The fact that we have mass Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square at all is indicative of the massive culture change that we have seen in the last few decades. A culture change that was not voted for or ever agreed to by the British people. And, a culture change that can hardly be described as having been entirely beneficial to our culture as a whole. I only need to mention grooming gangs involving mostly Pakistani Muslim men, sharia courts, honour crimes, terror attacks, the assassination of an MP, an attempt to blockade Parliament, mass antisemitic marches through London, a convicted terrorist standing for local elections, sectarianism, and many other examples to make the point.
Earlier this month, the Government gave Muslims special protection with the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility. This is also a sign of the changing culture and the newly sectarian politics we now see in this country with a Government that is keen to court the Muslim vote.
The call to prayer
The Adhan, or call to prayer which Timothy mentions, is recited in Arabic – one could say that in itself is not very British. A translation of the phrases recited is:
“Allah is greater!I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
In essence, this is a proclamation. These phrases are not prayer directed to Allah, but a public declaration that Allah is God and that Muhammad is his messenger. It is a missional declaration.
Not very long ago such a proclamation would never have been heard on the streets of London.
Call to prayer stopped in London
In 2020, permission was granted to some mosques in London to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer for the first time. One brave resident saw the problems with this and, with some others, chose to object. With the help of Christian Concern, a strongly-worded legal letter was drafted questioning the legality of granting this permission. The letter explained that there was no public consultation about allowing broadcasts of the call to prayer. There had been no Equalities Impact Assessment, and some refugees in the area were traumatised by hearing the call to prayer of their persecutors’ religion in their new-found ‘safe’ home in Britain.
At this the council backed down and agreed not to allow the call to prayer to be broadcast the following year. This was a significant win. Standing up against the gradual Islamisation of Britain is important.
‘An act of domination’
Timothy described the public call to prayer as “an act of domination.” It is interesting to note that a Muslim Imam has publicly stated that he agrees with Timothy on this. Writing in The Telegraph, Dr Taj Hargey said:
“Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, is absolutely right to say that mass Muslim prayer should be banned from public squares.
And Nick Timothy is equally right to view the ritual in the middle of Trafalgar Square, attended by Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, as an ‘act of domination’.
He continued:
“Mr Timothy was right when he pointed out that the adhan (call to prayer) – which declares there is no deity but God, and that Mohammed is his messenger – can, when called in a public place, be misconstrued as a declaration of domination in this Christian land.”
And further,
“What our politicians fail to appreciate is that Islamic fanatics have an agenda that seeks to spread Islam as the only true religion. To them, all non-Muslims are kufar (non-believers). They will not be content until they have subdued the world under their flag of fanaticism.”
Ramadan Tent Project
The Trafalgar Square event was organised by the Ramadan Tent Project, whose founder and chief executive is Omar Salha. It has been claimed that Salha previously expressed support on Twitter for the controversial group UK Cage, which has faced accusations of being apologists for extremism. A senior figure in Cage once came under fire for describing Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’. Apparently because of this connection, Keir Starmer himself pulled out of a Ramadan event organised by the Ramadan Tent Project in 2021. How ironic, and hypocritical for him to now criticise Nick Timothy for objecting to an event organised by the very same person that he had concerns about.
Trafalgar Square isn’t the only place where an Open Iftar has taken place. Last year, there was one at Windsor Castle. This year’s venues included AFC Wimbledon, Guildhall, the National Gallery, and King’s College, Cambridge. These are all deliberately iconic venues from which to proclaim the call to prayer and display Islamic spirituality.
Iftar in Cathedrals
Most shockingly of all, iftars have taken place at Cathedrals. Manchester Cathedral hosted an Open Iftar organised by Ramadan Tent Project in 2023. The Cathedral subsequently apologised for allowing the Muslim call to prayer in the cathedral. They were clearly wrong to do so. You can’t allow the proclamation that Allah is the greatest god in a place dedicated to worship of the Christian God. That is a breach of canon law.
Nevertheless, in the last two years Bristol Cathedral hosted a Grand Iftar. Southwark Cathedral has also hosted iftars, as has Bradford Cathedral, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Coventry Cathedral.
Somehow, I can’t imagine any mosque allowing proclamation of the gospel in their premises, let alone an act of Christian worship to take place there.
Nick Timothy was quite right to say that the call to prayer explicitly repudiates Christianity and so does not belong in churches or cathedrals.
Bishops Respond
Two bishops have responded to this controversy. Bishop Arun Arora wrote in The Guardian, defending the rights of Muslims to engage in public prayer. His point was that since on Remembrance Day there is a Christian act of public religious observance, we ought to allow Muslims the same rights. The point is, however, that Britain is a Christian country, with an established church. Hence why Remembrance Day is marked with a Christian act of worship. There is a false equivalence here. Muslims chanting the Adhan are not remembering largely Christian soldiers who died to preserve our Christian freedoms and thanking the God who answered National Days of Prayer, and many other prayers for the peace that subsequently prevailed.
Bishop Arun quoted Queen Elizabeth explaining that the role of the established church is “not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.” There is some truth in this. Muslims have the right to practise their faith. But that doesn’t mean that they have the right to chant Islamic proclamations and engage crowds of men in ritualistic prayer wherever they like.
The Lead Bishop for interfaith engagement, Bishop Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy also responded in a longer statement on the CofE website. He celebrates the “richly diverse part of London” that he serves in, as if ‘diversity is our strength’. There is no logic to this. Why is diversity a strength or something to be celebrated? He talks of “the gift of a society shaped not by uniformity, but by a deep and textured plurality of belief, practice and identity.” So, it seems, he prefers to live in a pluralistic culture, rather than a Christian culture. An odd thing for a bishop to say. Does he want people to become Christians at all?
His main argument is similar to Bishop Arun’s:
“We cannot, with integrity, defend the public role of Christianity while questioning the visibility of other traditions. To do so would be not only inconsistent, but unjust.”
The argument appears to be that since Christianity has a public role in society, other religions ought to have a public role too. Since we are a Christian nation, then, we ought to be a pluralistic nation. On this logic, the Coronation Service is discriminatory because it is only a Christian act of worship, and not a multi-faith mish-mash. Indeed, it is discriminatory to have an established church at all. Perhaps this bishop’s ideal is ultimately the disestablishment of the Church?
No neutrality
As Danny Kruger MP said: “ … as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square. What we don't want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions. What happens in our national spaces is not neutral.”
He is right. The fact is that there is no neutrality in terms of culture, worship, laws, or religion. This nation was once great because it explicitly chose to worship the Christian God and to honour him as far as possible. In recent decades it has sadly turned away from this path and we are starting to reap the consequences. One of which is rival religions vying for influence in our culture.
You can’t have a neutral public square where every worldview or religion has an equal space. This is actually an anti-Christian position which denies that the only true God is the Christian God. A secular state isn’t neutral either. It denies the truth of Christianity.
One worldview or another will have a privileged position in society. For centuries Christianity has had that position, and it has been for the benefit of all society – Christians or not. If another religion or worldview replaces Christianity in having that privileged position, then we will lose our Christian freedoms and values. This is already happening with decriminalisation of abortion up to birth, for example, and allowing men to claim they are women and violate women’s spaces for another.
Another irony in this whole debate is that people have been arrested for Christian prayer in public places, and some of those same people who are vocally supporting the rights of Muslims to chant the Adhan in public mass ritual proclamation, are vocally opposed to prayers or displays of Bible verses around abortion clinics. There is no neutrality. We have an abortion blasphemy code enforced around abortion clinics today. With the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility, we are close to having an Islamic blasphemy code across the entire country.
Conclusion
I therefore agree with Nick Timothy. These growing public displays of ritual prayer and proclamation of the Adhan are intended to demonstrate and increase the influence of Islam. They are an act of domination. Freedom of religion has limits. By all means, worship Allah in a mosque, even engage in Dawah on the streets, but I would draw the line at mass ritualistic prayers in public places like this. Unless we are prepared to draw lines like this, Islam will gradually take over this nation.
Tim Dieppe is Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern.
