The ‘Lioness of London’s’ battle against militant Islam

By Michael Ashcraft —

She’s been dragged to the ground, punched in the face, knocked unconscious, stabbed, and almost hung. She’s had ribs and a foot broken, and narrowly escaped a broken neck. A convert to Islam recently bought a gun to kill her, among the many death threats she has received.

Still, Hatun Tash – called the “Lioness of London” – raises her 5’2” frame and throws herself undaunted like Charles Martel into the fray of debate against militant Islamists at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London, Sunday after Sunday.

“She gets back on her feet again. She will not be distracted,” says fellow Islamic polemicist Jay Smith. “If anything, it only strengthens her resolve.”

Hatun Tash was born in Turkey, where she lived for 27 years. Her father was an imam. When she moved to England, she was perplexed when she heard that Jesus had died on the cross. Muslims know (from the Koran) that Jesus never died on the cross.

“I was shocked. I thought everybody knew Jesus didn’t die,” she says on Mohamad Faridi’s YouTube channel. “I started looking into it. I found out Jesus died. I was wondering how did the Koran get it wrong?”

Hatun’s only exposure to the church in Turkey was that it was a tourist destination like a museum, so she went to a church in England as a tourist. She was struck by the joy people showed; Islam, she says, is a religion of sorrow and grief, not joy. People were friendly and invited her back, so she kept attending for about a year.

“When people hear the joy and freedom the Lord Jesus Christ gives, they want to run away from Allah, from Mohammad, and from Islam,” she says.

She researched Christianity. But it wasn’t her readings about Jesus that converted her. It was her readings about Mohammad. Specifically, when she read Mohammad’s biography (by Ibn Hisham), she kept saying to herself: “This can’t be. This can’t be. This can’t be.”

Among the troubling revelations were stories of bloodshed, pedophilia, polygamy, and wife-beating.

As soon as she accepted Christ, she began evangelizing Muslims. She didn’t have much luck standing outside mosques. When she targeted Speaker’s Corner, she got more engagement.

“I learned more about Islam from Speaker’s Corner than I did from 27 years of being a Muslim in Turkey,” she says.

She came across Dr. Jay Smith, a regular evangelizer of Muslims at Speaker’s Corner, and studied under his tutelage. Jay had a PhD in Islamic polemics, one of the only (if not the only) in the world, and used historical, textual, and archaeological data to expose cracks in the foundations of Islam.

As Hatun learned more, she became more audacious. She began wearing a T-shirt expressing support for Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine that published cartoons of Mohammad in support of free speech. In 2015, two Islamist gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo headquarters and killed 12 staff members in a rampage, shouting “Allahu akbar!”

Hatun has become a lightning rod for Muslim ire – and not just because she brings cartoons of Mohammad. She is also a woman leader, which Muslims generally don’t allow. Hatun is a convert from Islam, which merits the death penalty in the Koran. And worst of all, her message has been devastatingly effective against Islam.

Four years ago, Hatun unearthed 37 variants of the Koran, undermining the essential doctrine of only one Koran perfectly preserved unchanged by Allah throughout history. She brought the Korans to Speaker’s Corner and challenged Muslims to do what Surah 5:101 prohibits, to think for themselves: “O believers! Do not ask about any matter which, if made clear to you, may disturb you.”

She says she personally has converted about 1,000 Muslims and placed them in churches around London.

Overwhelming, unrelenting opposition would have sucked the resolve out of another person.

On Sept. 26, 2020, police dragged Hatun from Speaker’s Corner “for her own safety” as she riled “Islamic thugs” by saying that since Mohammad wasn’t prophesied in the Bible, he was a false prophet. She had drilled holes in the Koran to illustrate the “holes in the narrative.”

On July 25, 2021, an unknown attacker stabbed her, slashing her head above her eye and her arm before running off. The attack occurred right in front of police. She rose and continued to preach: “Muslims, cutting off people’s arms is not going to help you,” she said. “God doesn’t need me.” (Implied: Allah can’t avenge himself; he needs Muslims to do it for him.) Police never found the suspect, despite recovering the knife from the crime scene.

On June 26, 2022, her bag and book were stolen right out of her hands. The perpetrator may have been Muslim. As she protested that in Islam a robber’s hand gets cut off, police came and arrested her.

“Many times she has been beaten up, she’s had ribs broken, she’s had her foot broken. They almost hung her. She almost had her neck broken,” Jay says about her on a Pfander Films YouTube video. “What an enormously courageous woman.”

Recently, however, the Lioness of London, who has moved a dozen times to avoid being tracked down by her haters, finally cowered. Or maybe she just re-strategized.

A British convert to Islam (Muslims call them “reverts”), Edward Little was intercepted by police when he went to buy a gun for £5,000 specifically to kill Hatun. He was convicted and sentenced to 26 years behind bars.

Police warned Hatun that other Muslim radicals were plotting her death, including bringing toxic acid to Speaker’s Corner. In that case, not just her own life would be in danger.

“I don’t feel safe at all,” Hatun told The Spectator. “Recently, I got followed by a couple of individuals. If you are on a quiet road and if your phone is about to die, and there are men behind you, you’re just like: no one is going to find my body. If someone turns up to Speakers’ Corner with chemicals, there is a possibility that they will miss you. They might harm someone else. So I just don’t want to be responsible for someone’s life or someone’s safety.”

Right around Christmas of 2023, Hatun went missing. She seems to have been lying low, but friends and associates were concerned and police began a search.

It turns out that Hatun was fine, just very far off the radar.

Today, Hatun is still posting videos on her multiple channels. She mocks Islam, elucidates errors, and brings scholarly attention and wit to bear. She is a huge resource for Christianity, and it would be a shame to lose her to extremism.

In the meantime, there is a new wave of apologists and polemicists picking up the mantle of ministering to Muslims at Speaker’s Corner, the park in London where Western Civilization struggles against the oppressive tyranny of Shariah Law.

To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here.

Related articles: 37 Korans: There are holes in the narrative, Mrs. Apostate converts to Christ, the world’s most Muslim nation Indonesia is losing to Christianity, Queers for Palestine?, Nagmeh Panahi, Jay Smith, David Wood.

About these writer: Michael Ashcraft pastors a church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and outreaches in Pakistan.