Was Peter welcome to preach in Jerusalem?

The evidence is mixed. There were several competing sects of Judaism in the first century CE, as well as wandering preachers who gathered groups of followers, although those groups never achieved the size or longevity to be called sects. Since Christianity was considered at that stage to be another sect of Judaism, there should have been no bar to Peter preaching Christianity in Jerusalem. Paul, in his epistles, also portrays the Jerusalem church as being at peace with mainstream Jews. However, Acts tells us that Peter was persecuted by the leaders of the two dominant sects, for preaching in Jerusalem. On this evidence, Peter was not welcome to preach in Jerusalem.