Al-Quds Day march<\/a> in London, an event which has taken place for 40 years, with the government citing public disorder risks linked to the \u201cvolatile situation in the Middle East\u201d and potential clashes between rival protesters.<\/p>\nIt is the first time a protest march has been banned since 2012, when authorities prevented marches by the far-right English Defence League.<\/p>\n
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The Metropolitan Police sought the Al-Quds Day ban,\u00a0which was approved by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which organises the demonstration, condemned the decision and said it would challenge it legally.<\/p>\n
It said a static protest would still go ahead on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The group claimed the police had \u201ccapitulated to the pressure of the Zionist lobby\u201d and rejected accusations that it supports the Iranian government, saying it is an independent nongovernmental organisation.<\/p>\n
The ban will begin at 16:00 GMT on Wednesday and last for one month. It applies to Sunday\u2019s planned Al-Quds march and associated counterprotests.<\/p>\n
Al-Quds Day is an international annual event\u00a0held every year on the last Friday of Ramadan, in which rallies are held to express support for Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of its territories.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, established Al-Quds Day in 1979 shortly after the Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n
![\"Quds](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP23104581096931-1712082527.jpg\")
Al-Quds Day rally in Cape Town, South Africa, in April 2023 [File: Nardus Engelbrecht\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s critics claim it uses the march to further its political interests.<\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, the Met\u2019s public order lead, said, \u201cThe threshold to ban a protest is high, and we do not take this decision lightly; this is the first time we have used this power since 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelekan said police believed the march presents \u201cunique risks and challenges\u201d, pointing to the expected number of demonstrators and counter-demonstrators and the \u201cextreme tensions between different factions\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/reuters_69b14b3c-1773226812.jpg\")
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood [File: Toby Melville\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
He also cited the Middle East crisis and concerns raised by security services about Iranian state activity in the UK.<\/p>\n
The Met said the context was \u201cso uniquely complex and the risks are so severe\u201d that imposing conditions on the procession would not be sufficient to prevent potential disorder or violence.<\/p>\n
Mahmood said she approved the ban after determining it was necessary to prevent serious disorder.<\/p>\n
While the march has been banned, police said they do not have the legal power to prohibit a static assembly. Officers will impose strict conditions on any stationary protest.<\/p>\n
Authorities warned that anyone attempting to organise or join a banned march could face arrest, adding that policing operations in central London would be stepped up over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan Police requested the ban citing public disorder risks, while the organisers decide to hold a static…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[252,27,18,250,6,1450],"class_list":{"0":"post-5567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-protests","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116344258714832253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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