The Times reports:
The order banning the Islamist group which planned to march through Wootton Bassett carrying empty coffins is to be extended, the Home Secretary announced today.
As of Thursday it will be a criminal offence to be a member of Islam4UK, punishable by up to ten years in prison.
Alan Johnson said that the group – which is already banned under two of its other aliases – had tried to escape proscription by changing its name, but that the updated banning order would extend to the group’s most recent titles.
“I have today laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by,” Mr Johnson said.
“It is already proscribed under two other names – al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect.
“Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism and is not a course we take lightly. We are clear that an organisation should not be able to circumvent proscription by simply changing its name.”
It will be interesting to see how Johnson goes about banning this terrorist group. The legislation will be published here.
I would have thought that any Order would need to concentrate on the group’s ideology and personnel. I would also expect that Al Muhajiroun will seek to defend itself by arguing that it is merely implementing Islamic teachings on Jihad, and will call on all other (in its view) “true” Muslim organisations to defend it. I doubt that many will take up the challenge.
Al Muhajiroun’s position is that its members are no longer bound by a “covenant of security” with the United Kingdom, and are therefore – in principle – free to take up arms against it. That is what sets it apart from Hizb ut Tahrir, which was its parent organisation, and other pro-Jihadist groups, including the various Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim Brotherhood front organisations operating in the United Kingdom.
However, as the Awlaki affair has shown, the dividing line between violent and non-violent (in the UK at least) Islamists is a very thin one. So when Al Muhajiroun calls other Islamist organisations “hypocrites” for failing to rally to their support, they’ll have a point.
Anyhow, here is exclusive footage of the Government trying to suppress Al Muhajiroun.
Have a go yourself, here.
