Time to lock up hate preachers

 

DAVID CAMERON last night faced calls for suspected Islamist fanatics to be rounded up and deported, jailed or put under house arrest.

MPs and campaigners demanded a crackdown on preachers of hate and other extremists in response to the ­murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday promised a string of measures to prevent extremist clerics spreading their poisonous message in prisons, universities and on the internet. But critics urged the Government to go further in tackling the fanatics.

They want drastic action – including the return of control orders and wider use of immediate deportations.

Colonel Bob Stewart, a Tory MP and former commander of UN forces in Bosnia, said those suspected of plotting or inciting violence should be put under curfews and round-the-clock surveillance by the security services. Islamist preachers from overseas caught peddling hatred in the UK should beimmediately deported, he said.

“These people think they are in a war against us and that is how we should respond to them. If they are foreign-born and inciting violence, they should be chucked out.

“We also need, as fast as possible, legislation to allow the interception of communications. And we should revisit the issue of control orders.

 “As a society, we have been showing too much decency and tolerance to people who seek to kill, maim and incite violence.” He also called for the Human Rights Act to be suspended immediately to stop European judges preventing UK courts cracking down on hate preachers.

Douglas Murray, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, said: “The Government keeps talking about dealing with preachers of hate but nothing ever changes.

“I want to see us charging and imprisoning people who are organising and inciting violence. And I want to see those who are preaching hatred deported.

“Clerics like Abu Qatada should be put on a plane tomorrow. And those we are not able to deport should be locked up.” Moderate Muslim Umair Iqbal, 26, who set up a Facebook group in memory of Drummer Rigby, said: “I agree that preachers of hate are the ones who need to be tackled.

“They don’t commit crimes themselves but warp the minds of younger people who are braver, naive and largely uneducated.

“There’s not much else that can go wrong. It seems like we have experienced everything besides things turning nuclear. I welcome strong action. Anyone preaching any kind of hate simply breeds more hate.”

source: express