Mohammed Hijab – Muslim Public Announcement on Prayers to Police and Muslim Community in SC

			Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. So basically, we wanted to make a statement about the the prayer in
speaker's corner and these things. What we've done is we've deliberated. And we've consulted over a
lot of the like, let's say elders and seniors and people of knowledge. And we have come with a
policy conclusion as to how we're going to deal with basically this whole idea of praying and
congregation and all these things, which now the police have reminded us about, which are part of
the policies of the Royal parks. So pause and realize that the Royal parks is a charity, which is
owned by the crown. And now that the police since I think 2004, have been the the enforcers of the
		

			Royal parks. And if you look into the regulations of the Royal parks, it says that it's not
permissible for any religious group to congregate and pray. So that doesn't discriminate in any way
against any particular religion. It speaks generally about all religion. And the reasoning it gives
it says that, because it's a public, the public harm is more than the public benefit. So what we
have to do, after discussing it with the people, this is what we've come to.
		

			First and foremost, one important distinction is that it talks about congregational prayer, and not
individual prayer. So if you look at the regulations in the rural parks, it says that you're not
allowed to congregate for religious purposes, ie worship. So that's congregational prayer, and not
individual prayer. So if anyone is in the war parks according to my knowledge until I'm corrected,
and who wants to pray individually, whether they be male or female, whether it be Muslim, or Muslim,
and they want to pray individually, there should be no restriction to do that. So if anyone wants to
pray individually in speaker's corner aside speaker's corner, on the grass on the anywhere, that's
		

			individually that can be done according to the regulations. However, praying in congregation, here
is a problem because the regulations are put in place for a reason. And as Muslims, we have to be
respectful of that, especially considering that we have available resources elsewhere, especially
around the area. So what we want to do is want to publicly declare that we want to be in line with
the police policy, or sorry, the rule Park policy of no congregation in speaker's corner, and that,
from our level, we're not going to try and go against the regulation, because this is not from the
Islamic spirit. In fact, one of the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam which is
		

			mentioned in Timothy, is when he talks about six or seven things which you're not places you're not
allowed to pray, and one of the places are three. So the place of where people walk, and of the
people to do shall have this hadith or explanation of this hadith. They say, the reason why we don't
do it in this place is because it causes hassle for other people. So as Muslims, we don't want to
cause hassle for Muslims or other non Muslims. Yeah, because, as you guys know, you should know that
our religion is not a religion, which is attempting to make things harder for people, generally
speaking, however. And this is where we say, however, right? If you look at the policies, or the
		

			regulations, it also says that this has to be enforced of all religions, and not one specific
religion. And if you're not, it's not going to be allowed for one religion, it must not be allowed
for all religions. Now, we have noticed that there are some African people that are of Christian
background, that come round and congregate, and that they play with the tambourines in a in a
religious worship. And sometimes they have not been recommended by the police to stop or desist what
they're doing. So what we want to say is that, to try and avoid this kind of discrimination, which
we would consider exclusive vising, the Muslims in the treatment of reprimand, we have also put a
		

			policy in place to protect our own interests as the Muslim community. Now this is called the three
strike policy. Wait a minute, what's going on now? Yes, it's called the three strike policy. And
		

			yes, so three is an odd number. The three strike policy works in the following way. We have a panel
of Muslims of five Muslims known to the people of the park, most of them will be known to the people
of the park and the names will be released maybe shortly after five is an odd number. So the
decision always has to be made, there will be like a consultative process. And a decision always has
to be made, if any evidence is produced to us as the Muslim community that the police is failing to
reprimand other religious people from other faiths when they are worshiping in congregation. And
that happens more than three times and there is good enough evidence, the panel of five Muslims will
		

			decide whether that is something which necessitates a strike. If it happens three times, then we
will go back to protesting in the form of praying in the corner. Why? Because we would say that in
this case, the police is discriminating against the Muslims and they're not doing something which is
in the in the interest of the wider community and in fact, they're exclusive lies in the Muslims in
discriminatory actions. However, we don't hope we hope that this doesn't happen. We hope that the
police doesn't go down that route because obviously there is an institutional
		

			Racism attached to or stigma of institutional racism, already attached to the police officer Steven
Lawrence and these things, especially the black community, and this will only hate exacerbate the
already existing hate within minorities for the police. So this won't happen. I'm sure the police
won't go down that route. So just to show that we are an independent autonomous community of people
we will not tolerate also. Yeah, just as we will not tolerate Muslims. Yeah, we will advise Muslims,
not to praying congregation, because that is against the regulation of the park. We also not
tolerate a discrimination of Muslims in the park. And I don't think anyone from a democratic
		

			perspective and Islamic perspective or Christian perspective or Jewish perspective or any other
perspective, would be able to disagree with what we are saying, here. And now today. And this is
what we have decided. I think that generally speaking,
		

			as Muslims, we need to work on building bridges with other communities. But other communities also
need to work on understanding and building bridges with Muslims. And this is this decision has been
authorized by many of the senior people of from the Muslim community of speaker's corner. And you
don't have anything to add to that. One thing I just wanted to point out is I'm not sure you covered
all of it is that we have in the park hate preachers, yeah, very clear call hate preachers. And when
you need to understand something brothers and sisters is that when this is being enforced, it's not
being enforced, because a policy regulation in the pocket is being violated. While life's not that
		

			be very clear that this was not done. Because there was a policy that was being violated. It wasn't
the reason it's been done. And let me tell you guys, I wonder about the Subarus verse seven, even
though it kind of correlates with it. Alessandra says in the Quran, and we were watching what they
were doing with the believers, they punished them for nothing, but what they believed in Allah, the
Almighty Worthy of all praise. So I was talking about here
		

			with a polytheist, and what they were doing to the believing men and the belief of woman. Now, I'm
not saying to you this was going today, and they're persecuting us. No, I just want to notify you
guys, that this is a step towards that. Because you know, why? is because of the hatred that they
have towards us Muslims. Why? Because we pray to you. Yeah, we pray that we do not harm anybody, we
will make sure the brothers will make sure that we're not blocking paths. So the only reason and
this is the lady who started this was a lady who I spoke to first when Tommy Robinson came, she took
a Baking Oven, like a vampire. Garlic here, and he goes, Oh, yeah, she took a bacon out like that
		

			making means something to us. Bacon and eat it. No one's got problem with that. So the problem here
is this. When you look at the Muslims in in history, they live side by side with the Christians and
the Jews. They have their churches, their prayer, whatever they want to do. No problem. And we are
supposed to be the ones that accused on stopping you go here to enforce your religion or other
people shove it down their throat. Look at the hypocrisy that's happening today. Be both be harsh
and remain people. Yeah. Be that lady. The only reason they stopped us from preying on lies because
of that, because you know, the police had no problem. The police even though it's in the policy,
		

			they have no problem. Because you can see in the video when that lady speaking, the officer was
speaking to his higher up. And I said he's more prominent than pre. But when they bought the policy
into place, they did not do it because of violation of the policy. I'll repeat again, the only
reason that one lie above and sisters, they hate us. And I will mention Nazi Germany again, you know
why? Because believe me, Hitler did not come and say, kill the Jews. Because nobody would have done
it. You know what happened? It was a gradual dehumanization of the Jews. It was a starting point.
They had banners, and they had posters of Jews with big noses and evil looking creatures. And that's
		

			exactly what's happening to us today. And eventually, if we don't stand up to it, and talk and we
obey by the law of the land, the police officer spoke to Steve, the tour guide. amazing guy, he came
he reasoned with us, we talked with him, we know they're doing their job, we don't blame them. But
just know we have to stand up and talk to this. And that's about it for me. Yeah. So just to kind of
reiterate.
		

			Thank you very much, and you're Christian. Okay. So what we're saying just to reiterate the point
here, the point is, what we've put in place is a three strike policy. If we see a group of
Christians or Jews or Sikhs or whatever, congregating in a religious worship type congregation, what
has to happen is that that evidence will be presented to the panel of five people, they will judge
whether that is a transgression of the police over the police have an acceptable excuse. If that
happens three times, we will no longer comply by the regulation because no one is because we are
being exclusive eyes in, in treatment. And that is, of course, a step towards the Nuremberg laws
		

			that you were referring to. One last thing, guys, and this is the last thing we're gonna say is
that, look at that as interesting. You're saying this because just recently, two, three weeks ago,
there was this whole pallava about freedom of speech. And no one here is talking about freedom of
religious expression. It's really, really interesting because why not talk about freedom of
religious expression. Now we have put we've started a petition, which you guys can charlo put it in
the description boxes of these particular channels. We have control over
		

			To change the regulation, because that's the best way of doing it for and to secure it for future
against future generations, to change the regulation to allow for congregation I would recommend to
the policymakers, by the way, that there is an upper limit, because you can imagine him being in
prayers that like he can't imagine three to 4000 people that could be problematic. Make an upper
limit of a congregational prayer, for example, 10 1520, wherever you want, but don't disallow people
in a place where it's meant to be freedom of speech and expression, to express themselves in
whichever way whichever way possible, which doesn't harm anyone else, which is in accordance with
		

			the with the harm principle and liberalism in general. I just want to finish off with those who kind
of stopped us from doing this. Don't think that you've you've done nothing, you know what you've
done, because we can have conversation further down. And every step we take towards us allies reward
for us. So to be honest, tofik, you've done something, the only reason we're mentioning this is
because we know your hatred is going to grow. And we just want to put a stop to it.
		

			Any questions? Yeah, go ahead.
		

			Yeah.
		

			If you pray, if you pray individually, you're not even breaking the regulation in congregation?
		

			Yeah.
		

			They're not gonna arrest you.
		

			They're not gonna lock you up. Yeah. So the consequences, as far as I know, there are no particular
consequences, you know?
		

			Exactly.
		

			The main point.
		

			But the main thing is here, that the Muslims unify upon one particular policy and the Islamic unity
is greater than the congregation in one particular areas.
		

			Yeah.
		

			I'll respect and respect. So this is like, making a public What are my Christian friends? Like? What
was the point I agreed with us on? And like,
		

			what was you know, what was what you were saying about Nazi Germany? And then there seems to be this
kind of agenda that's going on in the media, which is gradually demonizing Muslims, I pick up on
that, I can see that. There is hate preachers who push that narrative.
		

			I don't want to go there. But the two things I would say is, I agree with what you said about
happening by stealth. They're gradually demonizing Muslims and associating all Muslims with
terrorism. And I think that's totally wrong. As a white English Christian person who was born and
brought up you
		

			know, and also, this is supposed to be a haven of freedom of speech, and liberty of conscience, and
freedom of religion. Now, when I came here, I prayed, I just stopped by the fence. Then I prayed, I
wasn't disturbing anyone. Nobody was bothered. I didn't, I wasn't troubling anybody. And you know,
and then I came in here and, you know, when listening to various speakers, and if Muslims have to
pray, specifically five times a day, so that obviously if it reaches that point of the day, and
they're here all day, they're gonna have to go somewhere in pray. So we just should just let him
Chris Muslim spray we believe in as a Christian doesn't disturb you in any way. Not in the
		

			slightest. You know why this is disturbing, because he doesn't have hate in his heart. It's simple.
If you don't like something, you're gonna use any excuse to use it. So that's the difference between
him and those people. He doesn't have hate. Yeah.
		

			Thank you, my friend. Very good contribution. Anyways, guys, any other last questions? Any other
last questions? No. Okay.
		

			That's it. Thank you very much.