Back in January, then Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced he was to ban far-right Islamist group Islam4UK. I wrote about the subject at the time, and debated the ban on Sky News with Liberal Conspiracy‘s Sunny Hundal, who supported the ban.
My points then were fairly straightforward; apart from being kneejerk and illiberal, the ban seemed utterly futile. Islam4UK was just the latest manifestation of Al Muhajiroun, a group of followers of Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Tottenham Ayatollah.
Al Muhajiroun had disbanded after it was threatened with a ban. Then it was suceeded by the Saved Sect, which distinguished itself by attacking George Galloway and Muslim Council of Britain leader Iqbal Sacranie during the 2005 election. This they did on the grounds that democracy is haraam, and no one should encourage Muslims to vote.
In early 2006, the group organised the most notorious of the protests in the UK against the Mohammed cartoons, subsequent to which several people were convicted of incitement to murder.
The Saved Sect was set up about the same time Al Ghurabaa. Both were proscribed in 2006. Then Islam4UK sprung up.
You see what’s happening here? Today’s papers report a protest against a soldiers’ homecoming parade in Essex by a group called Muslims Against Crusades.
Look familiar? Same tactics, same flag, same slogans, same typeface, same people. So all that banning’s worked then.
