The Metropolitan Police were urgently called to The Angel Church in Islington, London, after a Muslim woman stormed the building screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘I am here to kill the God of the Jews.’
Inside the church, Pastor Regan King and his Jewish wife and young children were preparing for morning worship when the woman entered shouting Islamic calls to prayer in Arabic and directly addressing and reaching out to the children.
After moving them to safety, Pastor King demanded that she leave the building, but instead her aggression continued to escalate.
Calling the police, the woman began shouting antisemitic abuse and according to Pastor King screamed: ‘I am here to kill the God of the Jews’. She then repeatedly shouted through the church’s sound system ‘Allahu Akbar.’
Within ten minutes two police cars and a van arrived.
As the woman was arrested for a racially and religiously aggravated public order offence, she tried to appeal to one of the officers who she believed was a Muslim. She referred to him as ‘brother’, spoke in Arabic and said to him: ‘remember Allah.’
The officer, however, was very professional and said that he did not speak Arabic and that she should speak in English.
After her appeals failed, she kicked, punched and pushed the officers leaving them no option but to put her in leg and feet restraints and to carry her to the police van.
Pastor Regan’s family and his congregation are shaken by the incident, but are determined to carry on as normal with increased security.
A police faith liaison officer for Islington and Camden has since visited Pastor King and assured him that they are taking the incident seriously.
Local media, however, has refused to describe the attack as Islam related or motivated.
For stating what happened at the church, instead of receiving support, Pastor King has been accused of lying and ‘fanning hatred’ by Muslims in the community and has even been suspended by a community Facebook group.
Pastor King said: “My family and I are deeply concerned and shaken by this incident, especially my wife who is Jewish. She is traumatised and now fears going outside.
“Since October 7th especially, as a family and church, we have experienced multiple incidents of antisemitism and anti-Christianity.
“Yet we are undeterred and will continue to operate as usual albeit with plans for increasing our security.
“As a church we welcomed people of all backgrounds without partiality into our doors to hear and be transformed by the message of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, who brings salvation to all who trust Him.
“The darkness of our world would threaten to divide, discourage, and destroy, yet it cannot conquer the light of Christ’s truth. While this incident created significant concern and distress, we did what never fails – we prayed.
“Jesus calls us to love our enemies and to bless those who curse and do good to those who hate.
“This does not mean, however, that we do not desire both justice and mercy in this matter and we pray for our neighbours wellbeing and salvation.
“We remain unintimidated from fulfilling our calling to be Christ’s light and show His love in our community.
“We extend our gratitude to the members of Islington’s Metropolitan police who attended and dealt with the situation in a timely way.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, said: “We are here to support any church leaders, Christians and Jews in communities who are subjected to such attacks and abuse.
“We are encouraged that the police responded swiftly and decisively during this incident, but believe more must be done to protect synagogues and churches across the UK from emboldened radical Islam.”