Around 400,000 people joined a Facebook group this week to oppose a planned march of a Muslim extremist group through a British town famous for honouring the war dead, including those killed in Afghanistan.
Islam4UK, a Muslim extremist group, which declares itself to have been established ‘as a platform to propagate the supreme Islamic ideology within the United Kingdom as a divine alternative to man-made law’ and ‘convince the British public about the superiority of Islam [...] thereby changing public opinion in favour of Islam in order to transfer the authority and power [...] to the Muslims in order to implement the Sharia law in Britain’, announced last week that it will march through the town of Wootton Bassett, about 140 km west of London, in the coming weeks.
The group’s leader Anjem Choudary claimed that 500 of their followers will carry empty ‘symbolic coffins’ through the streets in memory of Muslim civilians ‘murdered by merciless’ coalition forces in the name of freedom in Afghanistan.
It is suggested that Mr Choudary’s statement is designed to get publicity as he has not given a date, or a plan, or even approached anybody in authority with any details about the march.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called the plans for the march ‘abhorrent and offensive’. He said the Wiltshire town has assumed a ‘special significance’ in the life of the nation which should be respected.
‘I am personally appalled by the prospect of a march in Wootton Bassett,’ Mr Brown said.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, said he would have ‘no hesitation’ in supporting a ban on the march if police or the council requested one. He said the idea of the demonstration filled him with revulsion and accused organisers of deliberately ‘targeting’ the town in an effort to incite hatred.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said:
‘I think their views are completely reprehensible to the overwhelming majority of not just the British public, but British Muslims as well.’
The claim also provoked about 400,000 signatures signed up to a Facebook group that asks its members to contact their local MPs and police to protest against the provocative march.
Liz Hunt, a Daily Telegraph columnist, wrote:
‘In a cynical gesture that mocks the solemn repatriation ceremonies that take place there all too frequently, and belittles the grief of bereaved families, Choudary’s followers plan to parade empty coffins through the streets, to highlight the ‘persecution’ of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.
‘Yes, Muslims are being persecuted in Afghanistan – but British troops aren’t guilty. It is the Taliban who are responsible for so many of the atrocities against civilians and so many of the deaths.
‘Talk to any British serviceman with experience on the front line, and they’ll tell you of the futility of trying to win hearts and minds when locals live in terror of the repercussions that even the most minor fraternisation can bring.’
Islam4UK has existed since November 2008 and is the latest incarnation of a hard-line Islamist organisation called al-Muhajiroun, which was previously banned under the British Terrorism Act 2006 for the ‘glorification’ of terrorism.
Anjem Choudary, the leader of the group, is a follower of Omar Bakri Muhammad who is an Islamist militant leader who vowed in December 2004 that Muslims would give the West ‘a 9/11, day after day after day’ and was reported by The Times as saying that ‘a dozen members’ of his group ‘have taken part in suicide bombings or have become close to Al-Qaeda and its support network’.
Several supporters of the group have been convicted or implicated in serious offences.
In 2006, Abu Izzadeen, also known as Omar Brooks, infamously heckled the then Home Secretary John Reid. He was later jailed for seeking to raise funds in 2004 for mujahedeen fighters in Iraq.
In a separate trial, two men who attended a rally over the global Danish Muhammad cartoons row, organised by al-Muhajiroun's successor, were also convicted of soliciting to murder.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of CCFON, said: ‘This Islamist organisation is using the Government's policies for minorities and the notion of freedom of speech to gain the moral high ground. As the Judeo-Christian foundations of our society are being eroded by the secularist libertarian agenda, it is not a surprise that the Islamist ideology seeks to gain ground and establish itself in a dominant position using all possible means.’