Respect opposes Blair's attack on civil liberties. posted by Richard Seymour

Terrorist organisations can kill and maim but they cannot alter our laws or deny us our civil liberties, only our own government can do that.Tony Blair says that he is concerned to 'defend our way of life' but his new raft of police powers takes away more practical freedom than any terrorist organisation has yet managed.

Tony Blair's new security laws, which will require the suspension of provisions in the Human Rights Act, will strike at our freedoms without bringing an end to terrorism.

Taking powers to close places of worship, extending powers of deportation, proscribing bookshops, making it an offence to 'justify' terrorism and banning organisations will not make us safer but it will make us all less free.

The government has tried to ignore the deeper causes of terrorism and is therefore trying to excuse its foriegn policy by demonising the Muslim community and severly restricting the civil liberties of all the people of Britain.

"How will these powers be used? Will Liberal MP Jenny Tongue or indeed Cherie Blair fall foul of the new laws if they repeat their view that they 'understand' why people become suicide bombers in Palestine? Will police now vet the remarks of Imams in their mosques? Will the police seize books in Islamic bookshops?", said Respect MP George Galloway.

Respect opposes the banning of the Hizb ut Tahrir organisation, despite the fact that Respect profoundly disagrees with this organisations politics. Indeed Respect has been verbally attacked in the most provocative terms by Hizb ut Tahrir but such measures will only drive Muslims into the ghetto where extreme politics breads.

One innocent man has already paid with his life for 'increased police powers'. If this policy is allowed to stand more injustice will be visited on us all.