Woman disrupts church service

A Muslim woman was arrested at The Angel Church in Islington, England, after she vowed to “kill the God of the Jews” and disrupted a worship service.

The incident involved antisemitic threats towards the congregation, according to the United Kingdom-based advocacy group Christian Concern.

The disruption happened at the Angel Church in Islington. The woman, who has not been named, stormed into the church around 10 am, shortly before the Sunday service, vocally targeting the congregation. Pastor Regan King, his 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 the woman leave the building, but instead her aggression continued to escalate. She screamed: ‘I am here to kill the God of the Jews’. She then repeatedly shouted through the church’s sound system ‘Allahu Akbar.’

Police arrived and the woman was arrested for a racially and religiously aggravated public order offence.

The woman tried to appeal to one of the officers who she believed was a Muslim referring to him as “brother”. The officer, however, maintain his professionalism and replied that he did not speak Arabic and that she should speak in English.

Pastor Regan’s family and his congregation say they are shaken by the incident, but  determined to carry on as normal with increased security.

He 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”.

Pastor Regan added, “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.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Police were called at around 10am on Sunday, September 1 to a church in EC1 to reports that a woman was inside the venue making anti-Semitic comments and causing alarm to a number of worshippers present.

“Officers attended and when they attempted to arrest the woman she kicked and punched one of the officers and pushed a second. She was arrested on suspicion of a religiously-aggravated public order offence and assaulting emergency workers, and was taken into custody. She was later released on bail pending further enquiries.”

Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, said: “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.”

The Angel Church is an independent evangelical church associated with the Grace Baptist Partnership.

(Agencies; Picture Courtesy: X screenshot)