Street preacher has a right to voice his views
It was very uncomfortable to read last week about Christian preacher Oluwole Ilesanmi’s treatment at the hands of the Metropolitan Police for daring to speak in public about his beliefs.
In the UK, there is a tradition to engage in debate with public speakers when we find ourselves at odds with their views.
To arrest him was surely a denial of free speech. If he had been inciting hatred, then there would have been good reason for the police to intervene.
Whether or not we agree with what this preacher was saying, he should have been allowed to express his views. Denis Bruce, Glasgow
The preacher’s arrest was not wrong. He publicly described Islam as an ‘aberration’. Tolerating this is simply giving Islamophobes the green light to discriminate without fear of repercussions.
If a Muslim preacher labelled Christianity as an ‘aberration’, this would be seen as offensive. Freedom of speech cannot be one person’s right if it comes at the expense of someone else’s.
L. Marshall, London
In my area, Islamic preachers are always voicing their beliefs in public. A Koran was even posted through my letterbox. I find this offensive but the police don’t handcuff the perpetrators and drive them miles away, as they did with Mr Ilesanmi. A. Still, Ilford, Essex
I recently said to a street evangelist who was shouting into a microphone: ‘Excuse me. Jesus didn’t shout, and he didn’t use a microphone.’ The look I got was priceless – he was speechless.
Philip Brannon, London
What really annoys me about the arrest of Mr Ilesanmi is that the police took his Bible away. Wasn’t it enough that they stopped him legitimately preaching in the first place?
There is a creeping disrespect among people for all religion when, actually, religion binds us together and gives us good moral codes for living. D. Cleary, London
I want to pay tribute to the Christian Legal Centre, which took on Mr Ilesanmi’s case and helped him win £2,500 for wrongful arrest. Christians are under attack and we need bodies like that to stand up for us.
N. Higham, London
I was sorry to read of the Christian street preacher whose Bible was seized by the police. By contrast, when I lectured about Christianity to trainee imams at a Muslim college, I asked if I could give them a Bible.
The principal said yes and offered to pay for them. Reading other scriptures encourages mutual understanding and may give one new insights into one’s own faith. Marcus Braybrooke, Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire