Two young women have been filmed confronting a street preacher outside an Islamic dawah stall in what appears to be a town centre location in England, after they alleged he had earlier told them they deserved to be raped because of their clothing — claims he forcefully denied before security officers intervened and escorted the women away.
The video, shared widely on X on Sunday 24 May, shows the two women — one wearing shorts, one a crop top — approaching the robed preacher and his security team beside a stall bearing the banner “Islam is your birthright.” The women insist he made the alleged comment to them or to girls dressed similarly earlier in the day. The preacher, who appears to be of African origin and is wearing sunglasses, repeatedly and emphatically denies the accusation, calls the women liars and demands that police be called. SIA-approved security officers linked to a Croydon-based operation intervene and escort the women away from the scene. No police attend during the footage.
No independent verification of the alleged original remark has emerged, and no police report has been confirmed. The clip is edited and does not include audio of any earlier exchange. The exact wording of what was allegedly said — whether a direct statement, a clumsy reference to religious concepts of modesty, a misunderstanding or a fabrication — cannot be established from the footage alone.
The video has nonetheless drawn significant online attention, with many viewers calling for the preacher’s deportation and raising what they describe as a double standard in the policing of public religious speech in Britain. Critics frequently note that Christian street preachers have faced arrest for quoting scripture or expressing views on sexuality, while comparable or more inflammatory statements from other religious groups have attracted less intervention from authorities — an inconsistency that policing bodies have been repeatedly challenged to explain.
The incident reflects tensions that surface regularly in British town centres around street dawah activity, women’s dress and freedom of movement in public spaces. Views linking immodest dress to sexual violence exist in some conservative religious traditions, though mainstream Islamic scholarship widely condemns rape as a grave sin and rejects victim-blaming in explicit terms.
No police statement on the incident had been issued at the time of publication.
