Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Politics
Original poster

Should the government ban some political organisations?

30 replies

Solopower · 10/11/2011 22:52

Muslims against the Crusades (?) have been banned; I think because they were planning to burn poppies on Sunday. They were the group behind the protests at Wootten Bassett, too.

I heard on the radio today that several other Muslim groups have also been banned, and what the government is trying to do is stop their members reforming under another name. Obviously if they are planning terrorist attacks, that can't be allowed. But no-one is saying that is the case here, as far as I know.

So what about freedom of speech? Surely if they ban these Muslim groups for incitement to hatred or whatever, they should also ban the BNP?

Will I get arrested for posting this??

OP posts:
meditrina · 10/11/2011 23:22

Look at the link above for the full list. It includes such organisations as AQ, Abu Nidal Organisation, ETA, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah Military Wing, the PKK, and Tehrik-e Taliban.

Disputandum · 10/11/2011 23:17

X post, yes it did take me 6 mins to type and link...

Original poster
Solopower · 10/11/2011 23:16

Ah, thanks, Meditrina.

I must be very naive because I didn't know any political organisations were banned.

But there is a difference between a terrorist cell and a religious (?) or political group that is essentially peaceful (even though it might get militant from time to time). Are they all terrorist groups, do you know?

OP posts:
Disputandum · 10/11/2011 23:15

According to this article in the Guardian it has been banned because it is another name for an 'already proscribed terrorist organisation' involved in the glorification of terrorism (pro Bin Laden rally, Hell for Heroes, disrupting service in memorial garden on 9/11).

meditrina · 10/11/2011 23:09

The list of proscribed organisations was drawn up under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006. There are 43 of them icw international terrorism and a further 14 Irish organisations proscribed under earlier legislation.

List here.

One banned organisation, formerly known as Al Mujaharoon, has sought to evade the ban by changing names. MAC is their latest attempt. I'm rather left wondering why it's taken so long to update the ban on the organisation to include the new name - they've been about for a year or so.

If you google Al Mujaharoon you will see there are indeed associations with terrorism - its founder Omar Bakri Mohammed is currently in prison in Lebanon for terrorism related offences.