Home secretary Theresa May has banned Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) who planned a repeat of last year's pretty much universally-condemned poppy-burning stunt.
Last November, Emdadur Choudary, a member of the group, burned two plastic poppies during the two-minute silence and subsequently received a £50 fine for his actions, a sentence criticised by prime minister David Cameron for being too lenient. The organisation recently disrupted a 9/11 memorial service and engaged in fisticuffs with their far-right opponents English Defence League (EDL). Their website states that this year's Armistice Day will be marked by a lack of silence by the Muslim community in the UK. MAC is actually a renamed successor to Islam4UK who were previously proscribed for glorifying terrorism. Theresa May said:
'I am satisfied Muslims Against Crusades is simply another name for an organisation already proscribed under a number of names including Al-Ghurabaa, The Saved Sect, Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK. The organisation was proscribed in 2006 for glorifying terrorism and we are clear it should not be able to continue these activities by simply changing its name.'
The group's leading figure Anjem Choudary unsurprisingly called the ban 'an abject failure of democracy', which is pretty close to what the EDL said back in September when their deliberately-provocative march on Tower Hamlets was banned by the home secretary. We suspect both groups of being over-liberal in their interpretation of 'democracy'.
In other poppy-related news, eBay vendors selling crystal designer brooches are being urged to donate their profits to the Royal British Legion.
