Muslims Against Crusades

Aren't they a couple of hundred years out, Muslims against the crusades? Muslims Against Crusades (but for Jihads!) was a British Islamist campaign group; although ostensibly an anti-war outfit, it also expressed a desire to replace the British government with an Islamic theocracy. The organisation was founded in 2010 by Abu Assadullah and banned the following year.

Views
The group's priority was protesting Western countries' military interventions in the Middle East, which it viewed as inherently anti-Islamic. More broadly, it also had a beef with the non-Islamic world in general.

The group claimed to "view man-made law as the biggest threat to the progression of mankind, and the fundamental cause for the corruption prevalent in society"; as such, they instead endorsed laws set forth by the voices in some nutter's head. They went on to say that "subsequently we do not recognise any of the leaders in the Western or Muslim world as legitimate". "The terms secularism and democracy are completely alien to Islam and against the basic tenets of Islam", they argued.

"A Muslim must believe that all Christians or Jews will be destined for the hellfire and that only Muslims will be eligible to go to paradise", they said. "It is not allowed for a Muslim to keep non-Muslims as friends." The group also claimed that "it is prohibited to engage in homosexuality, lesbianism, paedophilia, bestiality, fornication, taking alcohol and drugs, gambling, prostitution, pornography, usury, free-mixing, voting for man[-] made law, buying stocks and shares, insurance, sex before marriage, etc." and that "Muslims who have been affected by the western way of life need to be rehabilitated".

MAC argued that national boundaries are prohibited in the Koran, and so "nationalistic flags, clothes, emblems, anthems etc... or to support regional or national football teams are completely prohibited".

The group was founded after the banning of Islam4UK, although it insisted that there is no connection. At least it avoided using a number in place of a word.

Views on assassination
The group had the habit of claiming that people whom it disagreed with were in danger of death. When singer Cheryl Cole lent her support to the British Army, MAC issued a press release declaring that "she has put her security and life at risk, Muslims will view this as an action of aggression against Islam and Muslims. It has already been stated by many amongst those fighting in Afghanistan that whosoever supports the occupying forces either by word or deed, has foolishly put his/her security at risk, whether that be Prince Harry, Kylie Minogue or Cheryl." The article goes on to state that that "we say to Cheryl Cole that if you cherish your life, you should dissociate yourself from the British army and its occupation in Afghanistan, condemn the British government for its murderous war in Afghanistan and demand that all British troops withdraw from Muslim Lands". A disclaimer states that this press release "is NOT a 'death threat' to Cheryl Cole as has been espoused by British tabloid newspapers, but rather a strong warning (to her) to cease from supporting the Nazi British armed forces". (In other words, "We're not threatening her; we're just encouraging others to murder her. Totally different."

Following the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the group's website ran an article entitled "Is the assassination of Obama legal?". "Human rights and justice have lost all relevance in Obama’s war, as assassination takes over as his preferred weapon of choice", reads the piece; "if the President of America were to be caught off-guard in Washington or St Louis, would his death be justified given his new criteria in light of his horrific track record against Islam and Muslims and his own confessions?". The article concludes that "[i]f the answer is no, then we ask, why not? And if the answer is, yes, then we ask how many people would be likely to want to repeat the horrors of 1963 against this very evil man?"

Activities
In June 2010 forty or so MAC protesters gathered in Barking and barked heckled a group of soldiers returning from Afghanistan. The group's members again made a collective arse out of themselves by burning poppies outside Royal Albert Hall on Remembrance Day of that year, also shouting "British soldiers burn in hell" during the two minutes' silence.

In 2011 MAC applied to hold a protest against the wedding of Prince William (described by the group as a "genocide advocate" ) and Kate Middleton, but were turned down. Spokesperson Anjem Choudary declared that they planned to protest anyway and then got cold feet and cancelled the thing.

On 24 May 2011 the group protested Barack Obama's visit to Downing Street carrying banners with slogans such as "Wanted: Obama, Pharaoh of our time" and "Muslims will conquer the White House".

On 11 September 2011 the group gathered outside the US embassy in London where they waved banners with slogans such as "our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hellfire", chanted into a loudspeaker and burnt an American flag before a memorial service commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In October 2011 Conservative MP Mike Freer, while meeting constituents in a mosque, was locked by officials in a private room for his own saftey after members of the MAC forced their way into the building; according to Freer, one of the protestors called him a "Jewish homosexual pig". The group's website issued a press release commenting on the incident, denying that Freer was ever threatened with violence; the same piece also accuses Freer of being "anti-Islamic" and harbouring an "anti-Muslim fetish" because of his support for Friends of Israel, his endorsment of gay rights and his criticism of homophobic antisemite Raed Salah.

The Islamic Emirates Project
On 7 July 2011 the group, having apparently gone completely round the bend, announced its Islamic Emirates Project. "What was once a predominantly Christian country has now been overwhelmed by a rising Muslim population, which seeks to preserve its Islamic identity, and protect itself from the satanic values of the tyrannical British government", declares the MAC website. "In light of this glaring fact, Muslims Against Crusades have decided to launch 'The Islamic Emirates Project', that will see high profile campaigns launch in Muslim enclaves all over Britain, with the objective to gradually transform Muslim communities into Islamic Emirates operating under Shari'ah law." The site goes on to express hope that this plan will "pave the way for the worldwide domination of Islam."

This idea is especially egregious because the British have never even considered the possibility of setting up new political and legal regimes in countries far away from their homeland as part of a plan of global domination.

On 30 July around seventy of the group's supporters marched from Leyton to Walthamstow in the first of several proposed marches in favour of its project. Shortly beforehand MAC put up posters proclaiming a "Shariah Controlled Zone", which it claimed were in response to the Oslo attacks.

Banning
On 10th November 2011 - one day before Armistice Day which is marked annually in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries with a two-minute silence, an act of remembrance which the group planned to disrupt with a protest dubbed "Hell for Heroes" - it was announced that Home Secretary Theresa May had placed an order banning support or membership for Muslims Against Crusades, effective from midnight. May declared that Muslims Against Crusades was merely another name for the banned group known under various other names, including Islam4UK. The group described being banned as a "great victory", which is a bit of a glass-half-full way of looking at it.

United Ummah
In December 2011 a group called United Ummah held a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London in response to American drone strikes in Pakistan. Police arrested around twenty protesters on the grounds that United Ummah was al-Muhajiroun/Muslims Against Crusades under yet another new name.