1-6pm Wednesday 9th November
The new Terrorism Bill will:
Allow the police to hold you for 90 days without charge
Allow the Government to ban non-violent organisations
Make it illegal to call for the overthrow of dictatorships
Treat peace protestors like terrorists
Come along and tell your MP these measures will not defeat terrorism, they
will undermine the struggle by damaging community relations!
Only united communities will defeat terrorism and protect civil liberties
Lobby called by: Liberty, Muslim Council of Britain, CND, Muslim Association
of Britain, National Assembly Against Racism, Stop the War Coalition, CAMPACC,
FOSIS and Islamic European Forum.
The 2005 Terrorism Bill
The Government must take appropriate steps to protect us all from terrorism
but measures in this Bill are dangerously counter-productive. Instead of
making us safer they would threaten free speech and allow for people to be
held without charge for ninety days.
If implemented they will undermine national unity in the face of the threat
we face, and criminalise those who are not involved in terrorism. Any legislation
which interferes with democratic rights and freedoms must be carefully weighed
against its purported benefits, these measures fail the test. Britain has
experienced the counter-productive consequences of “exceptional” anti-terror
legislation in the past, the first people arrested and convicted under the
original Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1974 were the Guildford Four. Their
case was one of the greatest miscarriges of justice in British history, this
Bill risks repeating that mistake.
Come and lobby your MP on the 9th November and make sure they vote against:
Creating new offences of encouragement of terrorism and dissemination of
terrorist publications, offences that sound fine but are so broadly defined
that those calling for support for the opposition in Burma or Uzbekistan
could find themselves in court. People could be found guilty who had no intention
of inciting others to commit criminal acts. We already have plenty of laws,
including the Terrorism Act 2000, that deal with inciting terrorism, surely
MPs need to concerntrate resources on apprehending those engaged in terrorism
not on putting more laws on the statute book.
Allowing people to be detained for three months without being charged. This
is equal to a six month jail sentence; over twenty times the pre charge detention
time limit for murder.
Criminalise membership or support for non-violent political parties. It
is incredibly dangerous for a Government to start banning non-violent organisations
on the basis of their opinions, where will they stop?
Measures that treat peace protestors at nuclear facilities like terrorists.
The 2005 Terrorism Bill risks criminalising or excluding people who condemn
terrorist attacks and whose cooperation is indispensable to the work of the
police in fighting terrorism. The time to act is now. Come to the lobby and
sign the statement below.
STATEMENT: ONLY UNITED COMMUNITES WILL DEFEAT TERRORISM AND PROTECT CIVIL
LIBERTIES
Our lives, rights and freedoms are precious and we will not surrender them.
We stand united in our refusal to be defeated by those who seek to indiscriminately
murder people of all faiths and races in our country.
We support the police and measures against those who plan, support or carry
out such terrorist attacks. However, a number of the security measures which
the Government has said it is considering risk criminalising or excluding
people who condemn terrorist attacks and whose cooperation is indispensable
to the work of the police in fighting terrorism.
We believe that the fight against terrorism requires a broad consensus around
its means and the involvement of all communities to isolate and defeat those
who would use terror to divide us.
To add your name to this statement:
Go to www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk or Email unitystatement@london.gov.uk