A RADICAL Islamist group which held one of its last public meeting in London’s East End just days ago has been banned by the Home Secretary. Membership of Islam4UK, which had planned a march through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, becomes illegal from Thursday

By Mike Brooke

A RADICAL Islamist group which held one of its last public meeting in London’s East End just days ago has been banned by the Home Secretary.

Membership of Islam4UK, which had planned a march through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire to mark Muslims killed in Afghanistan, becomes illegal from Thursday under counter-terrorism laws, said Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

Members of the organisation held a meeting, calling themselves Worldwide Dawah Project,’ at Bethnal Green’s Oxford House community centre last Thursday.

Members from Tower Hamlets also held a news conference on Friday at Whitechapel’s City Hotel in Brick Lane about the Wootton Bassett march.

Mr Johnson said: “I have laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by.

“This is a tough, but necessary, power to tackle terrorism and is not a course taken lightly.”

Gordon Brown earlier this week described as “disgusting” the organisation’s plans for the march through Wootton Bassett, the town where the funerals of fallen British soldiers returned from Afghanistan have been paraded in recent months.

Islam4UK decided on Sunday to cancel the march and issued a statement saying it had “successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan” and that “no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett.”

The banning order makes it a criminal offence from Thursday to be a member, carrying a prison sentence up to 10 years.