Muslim youths in Blackburn hold pro-Bin Laden march

Police bar banners calling Blair a child murderer

David Ward

Monday November 12, 2001

The London Guardian

More than 150 young Muslims marched through Blackburn, Lancashire, at the weekend in support of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Chanting "Tony Blair, you will pay with your blood", they marched to the centre of the town, the constituency of the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, for a noisy but trouble-free rally at the town hall. A succession of young men denounced "a Judaeo-Christian war against Islam and the Muslim world".

"Is it Bin Laden who is the terrorist or the United States which gives millions in arms to Israel every year?" asked one speaker. "Tony Blair, you will pay for the crimes you have done to Muslims around the world," another said.

A leaflet handed to shoppers condemned "CIA-backed thugs like Assad, Saddam and Mubarak" and rejected western concepts of democracy. "In Islam, man does not have the right to make his own law, hence democracy is in direct conflict with Islam... The west does not have a system of freedom - it has a system of control."

The start of the march was delayed by more than an hour after senior police officers said they had authorised an anti-war march rather than a pro-Taliban demonstration. They said marchers could not carry banners reading "Tony Blair murders Muslim children" and "Wanted: George Bush for the murder of Muslims".

Nor would they allow them to carry portraits of Bin Laden above the slogan "Taliban: the lions of Allah". Tasaddiq Rehman, of the Global Truth organisation, which promoted the march, said: "The letter I gave to the police said we were protesting for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and against the Judaeo-Christian war against the Taliban. The Lancashire council of mosques is controlled by the police."

While discussions continued with officers, one speaker asked: "Why should I have to mourn for Americans who are going round killing Muslims all over the world?"

Another told the crowd: "We are not British. We are Muslims living in Britain. If you are British, you owe allegiance to the Queen and you support Tony Blair and the bombing of Afghanistan."

Another said: "Let anyone who attacks a Muslim be known as an enemy of Islam, and enemy of Allah."