Balanced News Blog

LONDON – Taking new precautions following the July bomb attacks on London, Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday announced new deportation measures against people who advocate violence and a ban on two radical Islamic groups.

Clerics who preach hate and Web sites or book shops that sponsor violence would be targeted, Blair told a news conference. Foreign nationals could be deported under the new measures.

Blair said his government was prepared to amend human rights legislation if necessary if legal challenges arose from the new deportation measures.

Britain’s ability to deport foreign nationals has been hampered by human rights legislation. As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, Britain is not allowed to deport people to a country where they may face torture or death.

While the proposal still needs to be approved by Parliament, Blair did take concrete action Friday in banning two militant Islamic groups:

• Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization that says it is dedicated to creating an Islamic caliphate centered on the Middle East. It insists it does not support violence.
• A successor organization to al Muhajiroun, a group that celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Planned measures:

• Home secretary to consider deporting any foreigner involved in listed extremist centres and websites
• Make justifying or glorifying terrorism anywhere an offence
• Automatically refuse asylum to anyone with anything to do with terrorism
• Examine calls for police to be able to hold terror suspects for longer before pressing charges
• Use more control orders against British terror suspects
• Create a list of preachers who will be kept out of the UK

Sources: MSNBC, BBC.