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Islam4UK

There is a predictable outcry for banning Islam4UK, a bunch of nutcases who want to draw attention to the number of good Muslims who are killed by Our Boys in Afghanistan. What on earth would we gain by banning this organisation? I think we lose a lot by publicising it heavily, especially on the BBC. It must have a lot of name recognition now, and by facing a ban it will attract the sympathy of those who distrust the state.

It will be impossible to ban a march specifically by this organisation. Therefore if a ban is to be enacted it will have to be drafted in more generic terms. This inevitably opens up the possibility that the ban will apply to another protest, about a cause which hasn't even arisen yet, which you and I will support strongly.

This is always the problem with opposing laws which restrict freedom. Very often the freedom that is being lost applies to actions that we haven't even conceived of yet. It is hard to organise a rally to support the right to do something we haven't even thought of doing yet, but little by little the sorts of authoritarian laws that recent governments love enacting are eroding fundamental freedoms.

Americans are more aware of the dangers posed, and always hope that their constitution will protect them. Their problem is that the framers of their constitution never conceived of the things that are being banned now, leaving unelected lawyers and supreme court judges to make these vital decisions.

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