Arrested for “enacting peace”
Published
by
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
JVL Introduction
A statement from musician Brian Eno about a police raid on a Quaker Meeting House in London last Thursday will serve as our introduction to the story.
Eno said:
Last night, six young people were arrested by police during a peaceful gathering at a Quaker Meeting House. They had assembled to talk, reflect, and organise around two issues of overwhelming moral gravity: the climate emergency, and the continuing destruction in Gaza.
That the police chose to forcibly enter a Quaker space—a site known throughout history for its deep commitment to peace and nonviolence—is both alarming and telling. These young people were not disrupting the peace. They were enacting it.
We live in a time where the greatest threats to our future go unchallenged by those in power, while those who speak out are increasingly met with suspicion, hostility, and force. When the state begins to treat moral concern as criminal intent, we should all be paying close attention.
The people arrested last night were not extremists. They were citizens who care—young people who see the interconnected crises of climate collapse and human suffering and refuse to turn away. They gathered not in violent defiance, but in peaceful conscience.
I stand with them. I believe their voices are not only valid, but vital. If the institutions meant to protect us cannot bear to hear these voices, then it is not the protesters who are disrupting order—it is the silence of those who look away.
Quakers condemned the police action in a statement we publish below the Guardian article.
Youth Demand issued their own reaction on X. They have a called a rally tomorrow, the start of a month of action, on Tues 1st April, 6:30pm on Malet Street in front of Senate House Library. Click here to see their video on instagram.
NWI
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Sat 29 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
Met raids Quaker meeting house and arrests six women at Youth Demand talk
At least 20 officers forced their way into property and police said some present were planning direct action in London
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Would this have happened if the meeting was being held in, or in a room adjacent to, a Roman Catholic, Methodist or Anglican church? Probably not. The latter has been largely silent about Gaza, so six weeks ago I wrote to the usually quotable Bishop of Newcastle asking for her comments. Extracts of my letter are given below.
“Today Gaza looks like the city of Dresden did after it was bombed by the RAF in February 1945. What we have witnessed over the past fifteen months is a descent into the kind of barbarism that prevailed in Europe eighty years ago, paralleled by a decline in the validity of the arguments made by the state of Israel in defence of its actions.
Eighty years ago Bishop Bell for a moment turned the Anglican Church into the conscience of the nation, as did Archbishop Robert Runcie after the Falklands war. They refused to allow the Christian message to be lost out of fear of upsetting their political masters.
Should those who profess to be Christians, and especially those like yourself who are in positions of leadership, continue to remain silent in the face of this assault upon every civilised value? To use the the words of Bishop Bell, has the Anglican Church now become the State’s ‘spiritual auxiliary’?
I invite you to share with me your position on what is happening in Gaza and whether you have shared these views with the clergy of the diocese.”
I am still waiting for a reply.
We are heading toward being a fascist state.
This is what happened in n azi Germany in the late 1930. Now it happens in many so-called Democratic countries. I remember politicians saying after World War II that this must never happen again.
Grateful thanks to JVL for this article.
There’s been a massive backlash THROUGHOUT the UK media against the Met Police action and against the draconian anti-protest legislation which supposedly backs it. A “Spectator” article called the Met Police action a PR disaster for them. The Home Secretary has declined to back the police.
Hopefully the (continuing) furore over the Met Police’s invasion of a Quaker place of worship may “nudge” police services across the UK into showing more respect for civil rights and protesters’ rights. Too often for comfort it’s seemed that police officers see themselves as government lackeys and act accordingly. Their actual job is to uphold the law “without fear or favour to any” (as the Police Oath may still say).
I believe that regular police officers do not break in to a religious building of their own accord and without overriding reasons such as a fire or a burglary. It is well known that the Society of Friends or Quakers is a religious group.
The atrocious forcible entry to the Friends Meeting House in Westminster was politically motived. It was done on the orders of the British government.
I think that it was to intimidate opposition to the Climate Change Disaster and intimidate opposition to the Genocide of Palestinian indigenous people.
There is an interesting article which discusses the recent complaint from the Board of Deputies in the Anglican weekly publication ‘Church Times’ which can be found at:
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/28-march/comment/columnists/paul-vallely-bbc-is-not-downplaying-anti-semitism.