More barking nonsense from David Toube of Harry’s Place at Comment is Free. Toube accuses Inayat Bunglawala of “rushing to the defence of the jihadists of al-Muhajiroun” in his recent CiF piece.

Toube continues: “In relation to my call to arrest those who are presently running al-Muhajiroun, Inayat states ‘it is not entirely clear what crime Choudhury is meant to have committed’. Let me help him out. In 2006, the government banned al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect, which is what al-Muhajiroun at that time called itself. They’re on the list of proscribed terrorist organisations. There is no difference between the personnel, the organisation, or the message of those groups, and ‘Islam4UK’. Indeed, the site gives Choudhury and Omar Bakri Mohammed’s phone numbers as contacts. There is no legal reason that Choudhury should not be arrested. He ought to be. I hope that he soon is.”

As AllyF points out in the comments:

“So David, you’ve now written two separate blog pieces saying that Choudhury should have been arrested for incitement and membership of a proscribed organisation, without presenting a single shred of evidence in your support.

“One of the legal problems with proscribing organisations like Al-Muhajiroun / Saved Sect is that they abolish themselves and reappear under different names. It doesn’t give the police the right to retrospectively arrest people for prior membership of now banned organisations.

“And several times now you have accused Choudhury of incitement to terrorism without producing a shred of evidence in support of the claim. I’m amused that you don’t intend to sue Inayat for libel. If I were you I would cling to hopes that Choudhury has similar intentions towards you, because accusing people of serious criminal offences without evidence can be an expensive business.”

Toube also expresses indignation at this piece posted by Mark Elf at Jews Sans Frontieres, which he claims “defames me”. Of course Toube, who is incapable of writing an article criticising a Muslim without accusing them of being a “fascist” or a “racist”, knows all about defaming people. However, like most bullies, he can dish it out but he can’t take it. While he reserves the right to heap abuse on his opponents’ heads, when he’s subjected to some harsh polemic in return he starts whingeing.

The Mark Elf piece is headed “David Toube of Harry’s Place, liar, racist, buffoon and turncoat”. Regular readers of Toube’s increasingly demented posts at Harry’s Place will have no problem understanding the “liar, racist, buffoon” bit. But why “turncoat”?

Well, back in 1990 Toube signed up to the Return statement, which opposed the Israeli Law of Return and instead supported the right of the Palestinians to return to their homeland. Toube declared his “opposition to the state of Israel as a Jewish state and to the Zionist movement”, and endorsed the view that “the Zionist structure of the state of Israel is at the heart of the racism and oppression against the Palestinian people, and should be dismantled”.

Now, of course, Toube denounces anyone who holds such opinions as a racist, if not a fascist. Perhaps he should consider threatening himself with legal action for defamation.

Over at Anti-Zionists against Anti-Semitism, Tony Greenstein has helpfully posted Toube’s original form adding his name to the list of signatories to the Return statement:

Update:  Read Inayat’s reply to Toube here. He points out: “I have no truck with the morons of al-Muhajiroun as any google search with my name and theirs will quickly show. I merely pointed out the paradox (or should that be brazen hypocrisy?) displayed by the racists and Islamophobes at Harry’s Place who claim to cherish liberty but are quick to call for the arrest, and ban of individuals and groups they happen to disagree with.”