Chanting “Jihad” on the streets of London is “inciting terrorist violence”, a Cabinet minister has said.
The Metropolitan Police said no offences were identified in a video of a Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain protest showing a man chanting “Jihad”.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick was asked about the incident and wider concerns around protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
He said: “Chanting ‘Jihad’ on the streets of London is completely reprehensible and I never want to see scenes like that. It is inciting terrorist violence and it needs to be tackled with the full force of the law.
“Ultimately, it’s an operational matter for the police and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) whether to press charges.”
We want to do everything that we can to protect British Jews.— Immigration minister Robert Jenrick
He added: “Arrests have been made… There have been arrests since the beginning of this situation… There have been arrests under terrorist legislation. And we want to do everything that we can to protect British Jews.
“But this is a broader question beyond just legality. It also is a question about values. And there should be a consensus in this country that chanting things like ‘Jihad’ is completely reprehensible and wrong and we don’t ever want to see that in our country.”
The Met said in a statement on Saturday: “In addition to officers deployed with the protest, we have counter-terrorism officers with specialist language skills and subject expertise working alongside public order officers in our main operations room, assessing any video and photos that emerge.
“They have reviewed a video from the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in which a man can be seen to chant ‘Jihad, jihad’.
“The word has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism.
“Specialist officers have assessed the video and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip. We have also sought advice from specialist Crown Prosecution Service lawyers, who have reached the same conclusion.
“However, recognising the way language like this will be interpreted by the public and the divisive impact it will have, officers identified the man involved and spoke to him to discourage any repeat of similar chanting.”
