UK MOVES TO BAN CONTROVERSIAL ISLAMIST GROUP
Islam4UK leader Anjem Choudary, seen here in 2006. The government announced a ban on Islam4UK, a radical
LONDON – Britain's government said Tuesday it will ban an Islamist group whose proposed protest march through a town known for honoring British soldiers killed in Afghanistan drew national outrage.
- The group, Islam4UK, will be banned starting Thursday, said Home Secretary Alan Johnson. The move will allow authorities to arrest people who meet in the group's name and seize its assets.
- Islam4UK reacted with outrage. Omar Bakri Mohamed, a Lebanon-based cleric who serves as the group's spiritual leader, claimed that the ban could push some of his members to violence.
- The government's decision comes after Islam4UK drew national outrage by proposing a protest march at Wootton Bassett, 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of London. The small market town is well-known in Britain for its quiet repatriation ceremonies for British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
- The town's residents join the families of the dead and war veterans to line the streets and watch servicemen's bodies being driven through from a nearby air base.
- Anjem Choudary, Bakri's U.K.-based colleague, threatened to bring 500 Islamists through the streets of Wootton Basset to highlight Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of NATO-led forces. After
- The lawmakers called the move a distasteful publicity stunt and many called for Choudary's group to be outlawed.
- Bakri said that the ban was "the gravest mistake," describing his group was peaceful think-tank whose younger members would be pushed toward violence if it were driven underground.
- In a telephone interview from Tripoli, Lebanon, Bakri claimed that he was lobbying for a peaceful reaction to the ban. "We (were) never involved with any violence, yet," he said.
- Bakri's group argues that, as Muslims, they're not bound by British law and has expressed support for bin Laden and al-Qaida. In its previous incarnation as al-Muhajiroun, the group was linked to several terror suspects and was accused of recruiting British Muslims to fight in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Bakri has acknowledged that some of al-Muhajiroun members have engaged in militant attacks but says the group can't be held responsible for their actions.
- Bakri, who was deported from Britain in 2005, added that, whatever happened, his followers could regroup under a different name.
- "Tomorrow we can call ourselves whatever we think is suitable for us," he said.
BRITISH PAYING TO HEAR ISLAMIC PREACH
Ibrahim Moussawi, a spokesman for Hezbollah, is set to give a lecture in Britain - attended by Whitehall officials
The British Government officials will spend thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money to attend a lecture by an Islamic extremist Ibrahim Moussawi; a spokesman for the Lebanese terrorist organisation Hezbollah.the lectures Moussawi plans to deliver are targeted at Whitehall officials who deal in foreign affairs and extremism.
Another speaker at the event is the UK-based extremist Dr Kamal Helbawy, a former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, a group said to have inspired Al Qaeda.
A spokesman for the School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS) said, 'The programme has a wide range of speakers with diverse specialisms.
The rationale behind the invitation to Dr Moussawi is to help Government officials and other senior leaders understand more clearly what makes Hezbollah tick.'The Speakers will each spend up to £1,890 of taxpayers' cash attending the Political Islam event at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) next month.
Last night, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a researcher for the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC), a respected think-tank, said: 'In their willingness to pay extremists like Dr Helbawy and Dr el-Moussawi, SOAS are helping these men present themselves as mainstream figures.
'It is particularly worrying that the target audience includes Government officials and the police, who may find themselves paying for advice on tackling terrorism from its very exponents.'
The CSC said it was now imperative Home Secretary, Miss Jacqui Smith ban Moussawi, who has allegedly called Jews 'a lesion on the forehead of history'.The controversy came as ministers were criticised for backsliding on two promises on terrorism: one to ban the extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the other to close down extremist websites.
Meanwhile, the Home Office admitted that not a single website had been closed down under terrorism laws, despite a pledge by Jacqui Smith that material that illegally 'glorifies terrorism' would be removed.
Courtesy: Mail Online....
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