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==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.muslimsagainstcrusades.com/ Official website]{{Dead link|date=November 2011}}
*[https://web.archive.org/20110207111859/http://muslimsagainstcrusades.com/ Official website]


[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]
[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]

Revision as of 22:23, 25 February 2016

Anjem Choudary has been associated with Muslims Against Crusades, amongst many other Islamist organisations in Britain

Muslims Against Crusades (abbreviated MAC) is a banned radical Islamist group in the United Kingdom. The group was founded in 2010 by Abu Assadullah.[1] Professional boxer Anthony Small and Islam4UK spokesman Anjem Choudary are associated with the group.[2][3][4] The group strongly opposes what it describes as "man-made laws" in Britain, and views man-made laws as the biggest threat to the progression of mankind.[citation needed]

Muslims Against Crusades maintain that Muslims are not "obliged to obey the law of the land in whatever country they reside".[5] In 2011 the group proposed that Muslims should set up independent emirates in select cities in the UK, operating under sharia (Islamic law) entirely outside British law. The group suggested the towns of Bradford, Dewsbury, and Tower Hamlets in the East End of London as the possible first test beds for these entities.[6] The group has often clashed with the English Defence League.[7][8] Home Secretary Theresa May banned the group from midnight on 11 November 2011, making membership or support of the group a criminal offence.

The group has been denounced by the Muslim Council of Britain.[citation needed] Many former MAC activists are currently active in Islamist groups known as 'Millatu Ibrahim' and the 'Tawheed Movement.'

Rallies

MAC is responsible for a number of incidents including protests outside the Royal Albert Hall and in Kensington on 11 November 2010, when two large plastic poppies were burned during the Remembrance Day silence.[1]

A 2010 Remembrance Day ceremony in London was disrupted by members of the organization, who were protesting against British Army actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. They burnt large poppies and chanted "British soldiers burn in hell" during the two-minute silence. Two of the men were arrested and charged for threatening behavior. One was convicted and fined £50.[9] The same group planned to hold another protest in 2011 named Hell for Heroes, declaring that soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve to go to hell.[10][11] The group was banned by the Home Secretary the day before the planned protest.[12] Throughout 2010 and 2011 there were various protests against the imprisonment of Muslims, with calls for their release; and calls for a withdrawal of non-Muslim forces from Muslim countries. There was a protest against pastor Terry Jones when he burnt a Quran (the holy book of Islam) in Florida, US on 20 March 2011.

They applied to the police to stage a demonstration in London to disrupt the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011, but this was not allowed.[13][14] According to the Daily Mail newspaper they planned to burn effigies of the couple on the wedding route through central London.[15] They later cancelled their protest due to a "possible danger to life"[16][17]

On 2 May 2011 Osama Bin Laden, who had led the Islamist al-Qaeda organization responsible for violent attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, was killed in Pakistan by US forces. On 7 May hundreds of UK Muslims and MAC members held a rally and Salat al-Janazah (funeral prayer) for him outside the US embassy in London. When protesters tried to storm the embassy there were clashes with police. Anjem Choudary,[18] who organised the protest, warned of an attack similar to the 7 July 2005 London bombings in response to Bin Laden's death.[19]

On 30 July around 50 members of MAC and Waltham Forest Muslims marched for two hours from Leyton tube station to Walthamstow town square calling for democracy to be replaced by sharia law and chanted slogans such as ‘democracy—hypocrisy’, ‘Sharia for UK’ and ‘Secularism go to hell’.[20] In August, members of Muslims Against Crusades held a demonstration denouncing the Shia denomination and "anti-Islamic" Shia regimes of Syria and Iran.[21][22] To mark the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks, around 100 men linked to the group protested outside the US embassy in London, burning US flags and chanting through megaphones. The protest could be heard by mourners in the September 11th Memorial Garden nearby, where a minute's silence was being observed to mark the first aeroplane hitting the World Trade Centre in New York City.[23]

On 10 November 2011 British Home Secretary Theresa May banned the group after it planned to repeat the poppy-burning demonstration; membership of Muslims Against Crusades became illegal at midnight.[24]

On 2 December 2011 twenty people were arrested on suspicion of being members of a banned group, and two for obstruction and violent disorder at a demonstration outside the US embassy in London; the police did not confirm a report that the protesters were members of MAC.[25]

Cultural impact

On have I Got News For You the group was discussed, with Ian Hislop, private eye editor, saying "aren't they a couple hundred years late, these Muslims Against Crusades?"[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Gammell, Caroline (21 April 2011). "Muslims Against Crusades earn notoriety in less than a year". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  2. ^ The Editor (2011-04-19). "Britain - Jailed for Burning a Koran » Publications". Family Security Matters. Retrieved 2011-11-10. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "Militant Muslim warns Royal wedding terror attack is 'highly likely'". Daily Mail. London. 1 April 2011.
  4. ^ Tom Pettifor. "Muslim militants hurl abuse at military parade in Barking". mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  5. ^ "Obey the Law of the Land?". Muslims Against Crusades. Retrieved 27 April 2011.{{dead link}}
  6. ^ "Dewsbury, Bradford and Tower Hamlets ... where Islamic extremists want to establish independent states with sharia law". Daily Mail. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  7. ^ "WALTHAM FOREST: Ban on protest marches (From This Is Local London)". Thisislocallondon.co.uk. 2011-09-02. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  8. ^ Attewill, Fred. "Muslims Against Crusades and English Defence League square up at 9/11 ceremony". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  9. ^ "Man guilty of burning poppies at Armistice Day protest". BBC News. 7 March 2011.
  10. ^ "Interview with convicted terrorist Abu Izzadeen about 'Hell for Heroes' proests". Izharudeen.com. 1 November 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  11. ^ [1] Daily Mirror
  12. ^ Casciani, Dominic (10 November 2011). "Muslims Against Crusades banned by Theresa May". BBC News. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  13. ^ "Royal wedding: Muslim group's Abbey protest blocked". BBC News. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  14. ^ "Police 'engaging with royal wedding protesters'". The Daily Telegraph. London. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  15. ^ Camber, Rebecca (20 April 2011). "Muslim fanatics plot to hijack Royal Wedding by burning effigies of Kate and William along route of the procession". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  16. ^ "Extremists call off protest". YouTube. 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  17. ^ "Muslims Against Crusades". Muslims Against Crusades. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  18. ^ "Pg.19, Al Muhajiroun and Islam4UK, The Group nehind the ban – by Catherine Zara Raymond" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  19. ^ This just in from London-istan: Violent clashes outside U.S. Embassy after hundreds of UK Muslims stage mock funeral for 'murdered' Bin Laden, Daily Mail, 7 May 2011
  20. ^ WALTHAM FOREST: Extremists march through borough, Guardian Series, 30 July 2011
  21. ^ [2][dead link]
  22. ^ [3][dead link]
  23. ^ Attewill, Fred. "Muslims Against Crusades and English Defence League square up at 9/11 ceremony". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  24. ^ Casciani, Dominic. "BBC News - Muslims Against Crusades banned by Theresa May". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  25. ^ Reuters - Over 20 arrested at U.S. London embassy protest, http://www.reuters.com, retrieved 2011-12-02 {{citation}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Have I Got News for You, series 41, episode 3
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