Muslims Against Crusades banned

An extremist group involved in the burning of poppies on Armistice Day last year will join the likes of al Qaida on a list of terrorist organisations banned in the UK.
Home Secretary Theresa May said supporting or being a member of Muslims Against Crusades (Mac) will be a criminal offence from Friday.
The move to proscribe the group led to it cancelling its "Hell for Heroes" demonstration against Remembrance commemorations, which was due to take place outside the Royal Albert Hall, where poppies were burned last year.
During that incident, Mac members were heard chanting "British soldiers burn in hell" before burning the symbol of remembrance during the two-minute silence on November 11.
Fining Mac member Emdadur Choudhury £50 for a public order offence in March, District Judge Howard Riddle told the hearing at Woolwich Crown Court that it "was a calculated and deliberate insult to the dead and those who mourn or remember them".
Tory MP Mike Freer, who called for the Home Secretary to take action against the extremist group after being threatened by them at a constituency surgery, urged officials to make sure the group does not simply rebrand itself.
"The Home Secretary has access to more information and intelligence than I do," he said. "I trust her decision very much. If she believes this is the right thing to do then clearly she will have very good reasons for doing so.
"What we must also do is ensure that any new incarnation of this group continues to be monitored because past history tells us that this group does reform, rename and reappear. But I have every confidence that the Home Secretary will continue to monitor their activities in whatever guise they happen to be and take the appropriate action."
Mrs May said she was satisfied the group was "simply another name for an organisation already proscribed under a number of names" including Al Ghurabaa, The Saved Sect, Al Muhajiroun and Islam4UK.
Responding to the ban, the group said it "would like to declare that we are hereby dissolved and will not be functioning as of tonight". A statement on its website read: "The intended banning of Muslims Against Crusades by Home Secretary Theresa May is a great victory for Islam and Muslims and highlights the sheer hatred the British Government has towards sincere Muslims who wish to peacefully speak out against policies that are (from every angle) anti-Islam and anti-Muslim."

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