UK lawyers launch legal case against Met police for failing to halt “Crusade” protest targeting Muslims

Legal Action for Peace (LAfP), an organisation of lawyers and human rights advocates, today announced a major step in its legal challenge against the Metropolitan Police Service. The lawyers acting for LAfP sent a pre-action letter to the Commissioner of the Met, challenging the force’s decision to permit UKIP’s protest on 25^th October which was framed as a “crusade” to “reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists.”

The lawyers claimed that although the Met allowed the protest to proceed, with a rerouted location, it failed in its statutory duties to protect the British Muslim community from hate speech and incitement to violence.

Imran Khan & Partners said: “We have now served a Letter of Claim on the Metropolitan Police Service, putting them on notice of potential judicial review proceedings. We act on behalf of Legal Action for Peace; an organisation of Muslim lawyers and human rights advocates committed to upholding the rule of law and protecting fundamental rights.”

The Director for Legal Action for Peace, Ayesha Khan said “Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to incite violence. By rerouting but not stopping UKIP’s protest on 25^th October, the Met gave the green light to hatred and failed in its fundamental duty to keep all Londoners safe. We are taking this stand because the rule of law must be applied equally to protect everyone. Hate speech that falls outside of the parameters of the law is not free speech.”

The organisation has also issued a public Crowdjustice fundraising campaign to support the legal costs for the judicial review claim, arguing that the police’s failure to ban the protest outright abandoned the Muslim community to targeted hate speech and violated core legal duties. This legal action is launched amidst a documented spike in anti-Muslim incidents.

Legal Action for Peace affirmed that it was taking this step to ensure that public authorities are held accountable for decisions that undermine community cohesion and threaten the safety and dignity of minority groups.