It’s about time. From the Voice of America:
The British government says it is banning the Somali militant group, al-Shabab and designating it a terrorist organization.
The British Home Office said the move to ban al-Shabab is necessary.
Al-Shabab is a militant Islamic group fighting for control of Somalia against the country’s transitional government. The group has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaida and has vowed to set up a strict Islamic state in Somalia.
Roger Middleton is a Horn of Africa analyst with London’s Chatham House research center. He tells VOA even though few reliable details are known about al-Shabab, its top leadership clearly talks about global jihad.
I think they have done more than just talk, but nevertheless, here is a sample of their talk! I think the UK falls in there somewhere!
“We want to inform Bush and our rivals about our real intentions. We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, and from Japan to Russia. Beware, we are coming.”
[….]
“Our objectives, by the grace of God, are to see the return of the Islamic Caliphate, the last of which was the Ottoman empire that collapsed in the 1920s. We want to bring that system back and govern the world with God’s law.