Group hits back saying Muslims are being treated as “second class citizens”
HOME Secretary Alan Johnson has announced plans to ban Islam4UK.
The group recently cancelled plans to march through the Wilshire town of Wooton Bassett which is famous for honouring fallen British soldiers.
Plans for the march caused outrage across the country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown voiced his distain at the plans, calling them“disgusting”, while a number of Muslim organisations refused to back the group.
Mr Johnson said Islam4UK, and its affiliate group al-Muhajiroun would be banned under counter-terrorism laws.
Mr Johnson said: “I have today laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by.
“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.”
Reacting to the news, Anjem Choudary, spokesperson for Islam4UK, said the country was being led by a “dictatorship”.
“What is clear is that if you differ with the Brown regime and those who advocate freedom and democracy and whose citizens are supposedly dying for these ideals abroad, then freedom quickly dissipates to be replaced by dictatorship,” he said in a statement on the groups website.
“The announcement of the ban by Alan Johnson this morning is a clear case of the oppressor and tyrant blaming the oppressed. Britain has today become an apartheid state, where Muslims are treated as second class citizens.
“The freedom of expression excuse is used to allow demonstrations against mosques, to allow the Prophet Muhammad (saw) to be abused, for people to shout vitriol against Islam and Muslims publicly and yet when Muslims merely stand up and say that we are being oppressed, that our brothers and sisters are being murdered, that the government must tell the truth about their policies then it is us and not the real criminals who are targeted.”
He also denied the group was violent, accusing the media of believing “their own lies”.
The banning order will come into effect on Thursday and make it a criminal offence to be a member, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
