Islamic extremists have launched a poster campaign across the UK proclaiming areas where Sharia law enforcement zones have been set up.
Communities have been bombarded with the posters, which read: “You are entering a Sharia-controlled zone - Islamic rules enforced.”
The bright yellow messages daubed on bus stops and street lamps have already been seen across certain boroughs in London and order that in the “zone” there should be “no gambling”, “no music or concerts”, “no porn or prostitution”, “no drugs or smoking” and “no alcohol”.
Preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, saying he plans to flood specific Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the UK and “put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term”.
In the past week, dozens of streets in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Newham have been targeted, raising fears that local residents may be intimidated or threatened for flouting “Islamic rules”.
Choudary, who runs the banned militant group Islam4UK, warned: “We now have hundreds if not thousands of people up and down the country willing to go out and patrol the streets for us and a print run of between 10 000 and 50 000 stickers ready for distribution.
“There are 25 areas around the country which the government has earmarked as areas where violent extremism is a problem.
“We are going to go to all these same areas and implement our own Sharia-controlled zones.
“This is the best way for dealing with drunkenness and loutishness, prostitution and the sort of thug life attitude you get in British cities.”
The former lawyer added: “This will mean this is an area where the Muslim community will not tolerate drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, usury, free mixing between the sexes - the fruits if you like of Western civilisation.
“We want to run the area as a Sharia-controlled zone and really to put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term.”
Scotland Yard is now working with local councils to remove the posters and identify those responsible for putting them up.
Choudary said he was organising a protest against the Far Right in Waltham Forest this weekend following last Friday’s killing spree in Norway by anti-Islamic gunman Anders Breivik.
He said: “We are going to put the events in Oslo on the agenda. We are going to be marching and addressing this issue. It is a whole new scenario now. The Muslim community needs to be vigilant. There is an undercurrent against Islam.
“I do believe a Norway-style attack could happen here.”
The campaign comes just months after stickers proclaiming a “gay-free zone” and appearing to reference the religious Islamic text of the Koran appeared in Tower Hamlets.
Women in parts of East London including Tower Hamlets have been threatened with violence and even death by Islamic extremists if they did not wear headscarves.
James Brandon, of the anti-extremism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, which has dubbed the intimidation the work of “Talibanesque thugs”, said: “This is a small group which is not representative of these communities.
“It’s great news that the police have decided to investigate this. This has the potential to divide communities and upset people.”
Yesterday the leader of Waltham Forest Council, Chris Robbins, said: “As soon as we heard about these posters we worked over the weekend to take them all down.
“Since then we have been going through our CCTV images and working with the police to try to identify the culprits. Our policy is to use the full extent of our powers to prosecute any offenders.
“People should not get the wrong idea about our borough because a handful of small-minded idiots, who do not live here, decide to deface our streets with ridiculous posters.” - Daily Mail