It is disturbingly clear that Avon and Somerset Police would love to prosecute Christian street preacher Pastor Dia Moodley for criticising Islam and transgender ideology.
The police decided in April to drop their five-month investigation into the 58 year-old evangelist. He was arrested last November for “inciting religious hatred” after giving a street sermon in Bristol criticising Islam and transgender ideology.
Footage of the sermon appeared to show a bystander reaching for the wire of Pastor Moodley’s speaker and him pushing her away. She then called the police.
He was then arrested by two officers under the Public Order Act 1986 and held at a police station for eight hours.
On May 16th, the Telegraph reported a spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police saying there was insufficient evidence to pursue a criminal investigation.
But in a comment dripping with sour grapes he added:
Should more information or footage be received, then we can review that material and consider whether any further inquiries are necessary.
Having caught the attention of the White House, Pastor Moodley was among the activists who met US State Department officials sent to the UK last March amid growing concern in Washington that free speech in Britain is under threat, the Telegraph reported.
He is a provocative preacher and arguably more verbally aggressive than it would be wise for Christian communicators to be.
But, while apparently lacking the necessary humorous touches, his street preaching is biblically orthodox and in line with the Church of England’s official teaching which, according to Article 18 of its 39 Articles of Religion, states that non-Christian religions do not bring eternal salvation.
In his sermons Pastor Moodley says Islam is “lies” and “darkness” while Christianity is “light”. He also says the Bible is “truth” while the Koran is “not true”.
In the months after his arrest, he refrained from preaching in Bristol until the day before Easter (April 4th). He reported that during his Easter sermon a Muslim bystander had threatened him after he compared Jesus to Mohammed, stating that only Jesus rose from the dead.
Footage of the incident appeared to show a man saying, “If you do that again, bro, we’ll have to send the boys round.”
According to the Telegraph:
Mr Moodley reported the man to Avon and Somerset Police, but officers allegedly refused to investigate, claiming there was “insufficient evidence” and that the comments “whilst unpleasant… do not constitute an offence”.
Pastor Moodley’s lawyer, Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for faith-based international organisation the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said after the police announced their decision to drop the investigation:
The war of attrition against free speech in the UK, demonstrated in Pastor Dia’s case, must end. Censorial laws need to be repealed urgently, and strong free speech protections, including a free speech bill, are needed to reverse the growing culture of censorship in law enforcement. We remain fully committed to standing with Pastor Dia as he considers legal action against the police for these violations of his rights and their failure to protect him from serious crime.
The ADF is surely going to need to be “fully committed” to standing with Pastor Moodley because it is quite clear that the woke police desperately want to go after him.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire, UK.
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We have all forgotten the most important point, which my Saviour pointed out to me this morning in prayer:
Everyone from John the Baptist to Jesus to the Apostles to the disciples to John Wesley TRAVELLED AROUND to teach and preach !!!
And that’s what all these modern street preachers are supposed to do, not just plunk themselves down in one place every day like this Pastor Muthali in Bristol, the very home base of the GREAT ITINERANT PREACHER JOHN WESLEY !!!
It is SHEER LAZINESS on the part of Pastor Muthali and those like him, to just choose one comfortable spot and park themselves there for years, shouting at the same people and making a noise nuisance, and in doing so they appear to be fraudulent. They need to visit John Wesley’s New Room on The Horsefair in Bristol, to look at the statue of him on his horse, and learn about his life and preaching.
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 10:22
The thing is: for a Christian, being persecuted for Christ is a badge of honor.
This can hardly be called “persecution”. Look up the Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two little boys, burnt alive as they were sleeping in their car in India, by a fanatical “Bajrang Dal” Hindu mob led by Dara Singh, who is even now being considered for release from his prison sentence for it. Hindu Dara Singh also chopped off the arms of a Muslim man before killing him, and shot an Indian Christian dead with an arrow after setting his church on fire.
“Oh, but Hindus aren’t violent!”, I hear people say. “They’re peaceful vegetarians!”
These people were easier to ignore when their voices weren’t amplified. When did they all start using mics and speakers? For years there was always some ‘manic street preacher’ at Newcastle Monument of a Saturday but they just wore sandwich boards and yelled, so not very invasive over the background noise of the city.
I don’t even know why people preach in the first place, to be honest. Nobody listens to them. Wouldn’t your target audience be more likely to go to a church if they wanted to listen to all that sort of stuff? So I’m not quite sure what they or anyone else really gets out of it.
I’m all for free speech but I’d rather listen to a decent busker, personally.
Churches preach to the converted, preaching to non believers might plant a seed in someone’s mind that will one day produce fruit.
Even if he’s wasted every single minute he’s spent preaching on the street he has the right to do so and the police shouldn’t try to silence him because of what he says.
How is this any different from British people being forced to listen to the Islamic Caterwauling Call to Prayer five times a day from mosque minaret loudspeakers?
Then you won’t mind if he stands outside your own house or workplace and shouts through a microphone every day, will you?
You’re being very cantankerous today.
I’m just asking honest questions, and still waiting for answers instead of deflections.
He persecuted Christians before becoming a Christian and realising this was wrong. God, if he exists, has forgiven him so everyone else should, if God doesn’t exist he’s still genuinely sorry for persecuting Christians so we should still forgive. If South Africa wants him to be extradited to face trial for what he did there fair enough he should be on the first plane to Cape Town and be punished in this world.
As far as I know no one has complained about the volume of his preaching. If someone doesn’t like they volume can do what I said, in a different comment, that I’d do and ask him politely to turn it down, this includes yourself if he was preaching outside your home or place of work. If he chooses not to turn the volume down he can be reported to the police, or council, for being a nuisance and they can decide whether he is or someone has complained without good reason to do so.
It’s not just the VOLUME of his preaching that causes a nuisance, as I’ve said before.
I agree he does have the right to do so, but I think there’s an argument to be had about if these people should all be allowed to exercise their right to freedom of speech quite so intrusively using a microphone and speakers. There’s notices on public transport ( not that this should be necessary because it’s basic courtesy and consideration ) to not talk on your mobile phones, and how many of us have been stuck on a bus or train listening to somebody’s conversation nearby and it’s irritating.
No problem with some sort of scheduled event taking place in a city centre but I think random lone people popping up across town and blaring out stuff that the vast majority of people have no interest in, and would seek out more appropriate venues if they did so, seems a bit too intense and is bound to get annoying, especially for those working or living nearby.
The city I’m in has a ‘Jesus bus’ that rolls into town now and again and parks centrally. It’s a funky-looking bus and they play music not overly loud and their doors are open for anyone interested to go in and presumably chat… Read more »
Excellent article. The police still managed to get him banned from preaching in Bristol (his job) for many weeks, though.
“He is a provocative preacher and arguably more verbally aggressive than it would be wise for Christian communicators to be.” I’ve heard Pastor Dia preaching. He’s far less provocative than Jesus was (“You brood of vipers… – Matthew 12:34 – ” etc). What he does is invite questions from the public, and that can open all sorts of disputes. He’s very effective though, and one of nature’s gentlemen.
He himself confessed to having persecuted Christians in South Africa, so before calling him “one of nature’s gentlemen”, you should ask him more about exactly how he persecuted Christians during his time as a fanatical Hindu militant. Was he a member of Bajrang Dal?
Thanks for replying. Pastor Dia is not alone in having formerly persecuted Christians before becoming a Christian himself.
Galatians 1:13:
1 Corinthians 15:9:
Of course I know that Father Brown was right, and “miracles aren’t that cheap.” But, wouldn’t it be hilarious if the police sent one of these street preachers to prison like St Paul and then there was an earthquake and all the prisoners escaped.
I don’t see how the police are always “the bad guys” in every situation. It all depends on whether the preacher had been shouting with a microphone outside people’s workplaces and flats for hours every blinking day for the past 7 years (he must have been collecting unemployment benefits all that time).
How would you like it if he did that outside your flat or house or workplace? For seven years!!! It may be that the police were just trying to “Keep the Peace”, as was their original brief, and it’s quite a stretch to turn him into a martyr like Paul, who was also known for annoying the public with his longwinded public sermons, for which they sometimes chased him out of town!
He was standing up to Islam which has to be a good thing even if he was doing it a bit too loudly for your liking.
It is more correct to say he was criticizing Islam, as all Hindus do, and he has also criticized his former religion of Hinduism, as a convert to Christianity, and he has also criticized Christianity and persecuted Christians in South Africa.
Why not ask him exactly how he “stood up to Christianity” and persecuted Christians, since he claims to be persecuted now? If he truly repents, then he will be glad to tell you, since without true repentance, there can be no forgiveness, and no salvation, as Jesus said.
Astonishing what lies hidden sometimes! This pastor is actually a Hindu Tamil immigrant to the UK from South Africa via Tamil Nadu in India, who says he himself used to persecute Christians there!
His surname “Moodley” is an Anglicized version of the Tamil name “Muthali”.
It all depends on HOW he was preaching in public, and whether he was causing a noise nuisance, because nobody likes being forced to listen to someone shouting with a microphone outside your workplace while you are trying to concentrate on your work, regardless of their religion.
“Pastor Dia Moodley’s journey from a deeply rooted Hinduist to a passionate Christian preacher is a testament to the transformative power of faith. Born and raised in Durban, South Africa, he faced a challenging period in his life before discovering the true meaning of life and God’s purpose.”
PressReader.com – Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions
Speaking of Hindus persecuting Christians, remember Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two little boys.
Pastor slammed for mocking Hinduism
“Local Hindu organisations have condemned the actions of a former Durban pastor, now living in the UK, after he took to Facebook mocking the consecration ceremony of the installation of the Ram Lalla murthie at the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra in Ayodhya, India.”
White House backs anti-Islam preacher in two-tier policing row
And yet, the wife of the US Vice President JD Vance is a Hindu, whose religion this preacher has also been mocking. It seems they haven’t looked into this preacher’s background before being persuaded to support him.
He was arrested for inciting racial hatred, not for causing a public nuisance because his speaker was too loud. If someone was disturbing me too much by preaching too loudly I’d politely ask them to turn the volume down rather than trying to get them into trouble if I disagreed with something they said.
Any kind of volume is too loud when you’re trying to concentrate on your work and some zealot is shouting outside your window every day, regardless of his religion.
I don’t believe that anyone has ever been converted by a street preacher.
Then he should have been arrested for causing a public nuisance or asked to turn the volume down.
“I don’t believe that anyone has ever been converted by a street preacher”.
There was a guy who gets a couple of mentions in the New Testament I think. Christians think he is important for some reason. Jesus or something he was called.