Im divided on this. Whilst I loathe the political Islamists, not least

Comment on Should the Government Ban the Islam4UK Wootton Bassett March Poll by Angry Philosopher.

Im divided on this. Whilst I loathe the political Islamists, not least for their hypocrisy and its quite clear they chose Wootton Bassett to provoke emotions, banning them is problematic.
Their placards are insensitive, insulting and inaccurate but if an organisation, even an extremist organisation is protesting peacefully it is hard to shout about defending freedom whilst preventing free speech. I know there is the argument that freedom has its limits when people seek to provoke, as Islam4UK is doing but I can’t help thinking that banning them will only allow them to paint themselves as martyrs and will actually serve to give them support. From a practical point of view, all they have to do is change their name and they divert the ban anyway. I think it would be more effective tackling hate clerics in certain mosques when they can be seen clearly inciting violence. Anjem Choudary is an attention seeker in the same mould as Nick Griffin. Whilst militant islamism is a real threat, we should not prop them up to be bigger than they are. Banning them only brings attention to them, but having said that I can see both sides of the argument.