BRITAIN is regarded as a safe haven by Islamic extremists because it has failed to crack down on them despite urging other countries to do so, the president of Pakistan has warned. In an interview with The Sunday Times, General Pervez Musharraf suggested that Britain had paid a price for putting the right of free speech before the need to curb militant Islamic organisations that openly advocate violence. âThey should have been doing what they have been demanding of us to do â to ban extremist groups like they asked us to do here in Pakistan and which I have done,â he said. In particular, he said, Britain should have banned Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir, groups that he accuses of preaching anger and hatred and of calling for his own assassination. âThey could have banned these two groups. Good action is when you foresee the future and pre-empt and act beforehand, instead of reacting as in the case of Britain â which waited for the damage to be done and is now reacting to it.â
