Volunteers for Taliban face trial for treason

War on Terrorism: British Muslims

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British Muslims who go to fight for the Taliban will face prosecution under the 650-year-old treason laws, the Home Office minister Lord Rooker announced yesterday.

Lord Rooker told the House of Lords that treason was "like an elephant on the doorstep – you recognise it when you see it". He said: "If you take up arms against your own country, your own state, whether in that state or abroad against that state's agents, that's an offence under the 1351 Act."

The government warnings came amid anger from moderate Muslims at attempts by extremist organisations to encourage more Britons to engage in jihad, or holy war. Ghuyasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the so-called Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said the extremist al-Muhajiroun group was a "lunatic fringe" that was distorting the truth and trying to exploit the war.

"They want to gain some kind of currency with a community which has rejected them," he said. "The Muslim Parliament has been condemning their actions for a long time. Unfortunately, the sort of statements that they make attract a lot of column inches."

Britain's largest mosque, at Regent's Park in north London, said al-Muhajiroun was banned from meeting there. But a spokesman, Tayab Ali, said: "I don't think we will be able to gag them or take any action, apart from condemn them. We exclude them from here. They have got no foothold here."

Al-Muhajiroun, which is dedicated to Izhar ul-Deen (the global domination of Islam and the overthrow of secular states) and has been banned from UK colleges, was unrepentant yesterday. From its offices in Lahore in Pakistan, Hassan Butt, a spokesman for the group, claimed 600 Britons had tried to join the Taliban. He said al-Muhajiroun was a "political organisation" not a military one.

But Mr Butt, formerly from Manchester, said he felt a personal obligation as a Muslim to help the British Taliban volunteers contact those who could provide them with arms as well as food and clothing. He said: "With the news that people have become martyrs, many more will come. It is the way to get into paradise to become a martyr on the battlefield."

Mr Butt said the Government's threats would not prevent people from coming to fight. He said: "Britain should realise that people don't do these obligations because the British Government allows them. People do it because it's a religious obligation." He said the Britons who had gone to fight ranged from graduates to factory workers and taxi drivers. Almost all were from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds and aged between 18 and 40.

Officials are also ready to use anti-terrorist and public order legislation to prosecute British Muslims who fight for the Taliban or recruit others to do so. Police are also monitoring al-Muhajiroun for statements that could lead to charges being brought under the Public Order Act for inciting racial hatred.

* The BBC's own watchdog has upheld viewers' complaints yesterday about the tone and timing of a Question Time programme shown on 13 September in which some members of the audience expressed strong anti-American views.