The permissibility of protests in UK under certain conditions

Question

In UK against vilification of Prophethood or vilification of the Quran and to defend against similar matters, according to European laws, protest rallies are organised, whose aim is to make our voice reach rulers and people of influence and to obtain our right. We do not have any better way or mean other than this. We have two kinds of people who look at these rallies from the religious perspective:

Doing a protest is not a Shar’i way
This is the only way we have, we can’t do without it

So is a peaceful protest permissible in the Shari’ah? Sometimes the crowd carried by emotions especially the youth, without desiring, some violence and loss occur, what does the Shari’ah say in such a case?

Answer

Al-Hamdullilah Wahdah, was Salah was Salam ‘ala man la Nabiya Ba’dah!

Allah Ta’ala says in the noble Quran:

“Allah does not like the public mention of evil except by one who has been wronged “ (Surah An-Nisa: 148)

we find in this verse the permissibility of Ihtijaj (protest) against any form of injustice. We also have evidence from Hadith. Indeed Abu Hurayrah (rad) said:

“A man came to the prophet (May peace be upon him) complaining against his neighbor. He said: go and have patience. He again came to him twice or thrice. He then said : Go and throw your property in the way. So he threw his property in the way and the people began to ask him and he would tell them about him. The people then began to curse him; may Allah do with him so and so! Then his neighbor came to him and said: Return, you will not see from me anything which you dislike.” (Abu Dawood: 5153)

Hence Ihtijaj (protest) can be done, although some rules and conditions should be taken into account:

The aim of the protest should only be to make your voice reach rulers, record your protest, and outside this there should not be any insult or such kind of comments
The protest should be in such a manner that those crossing should not have any obstruction or difficulty
There should be no burning, encircling and breaking of things as in our place in most cases protestors in intense zeal break things, encircle and bring destruction to state properties, and burn cars of those passing nearby. So in such a case, protesting is not permissible at all and Haram. This is not a protest but thuggery and corruption.

Yet if all above mentioned conditions are taken into account, then protesting is allowed

Wa Aakhir Da’wana Anal Hamda Lillahi Rabbil Alameen