Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, are both American but have lived in the United Kingdom for many years. They have launched legal action against the West Midlands Police, claiming an officer infringed on their right to profess their religion.
In February, the two men say they were told by a police community support officer that they were in a Muslim area and were, therefore, not allowed to spread their Christian message. They also were told they were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam. The ministers also say the officer told them, "You have been warned. If you come back here and get beaten up, well you have been warned."
Robert Spencer is the Director of Jihad Watch, a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He believes this was a de facto imposition of Islamic law in Britain.
"Obviously English law has no restrictions on Christian evangelization or Christian proselytization of any kind. But Islamic law forbids Christians to proselytize, especially among Muslims. So this is a de facto imposition of Islamic law in Britain," Spencer contends.
Spencer says this is all part of the Islamic supremacy movement which very few westerners really understand. "Islamic supremacism is the impulse to impose Islamic law over non-Muslims. Since we're only concentrating as a society and in terms of law enforcement on terrorism, we are not resisting in any way the non-violent initiatives. And that means they'll just continue to advance," Spencer explains.
As a result, Spencer thinks it is more likely that the two evangelists will be punished and not the police officer.
