Freedom of speech. Islamic fundamentalists need not apply.

Nutcase irritants Islam4UK and al-Muhajiroun are to be banned from Thursday. Hooray, many of you may be thinking: they're opposed to everything that the UK currently appears to represent - sexual equality, religious freedom, liberal values.

But. These tiny groupuscules aren't terrorist organisations. They utterly reject and despise so-called Western values, and want to found a European Caliphate. So what? I can think of a much larger political party which rejects liberal values and often uses violence and confrontation to achieve its ends. It's called the British National Party.

I don't understand the difference in the way they're treated. Either you're pro-free speech in which case both these organisations should be legal (the argument that bad policies wither under scrutiny is a persuasive one - and proscribed organisations can get away with more than an open one can) or neither of them should be. Both are potential gateways to violent extremism, and both are hostile to mainstream values. Neither, however, are terrorist organisations. I worry about the arbitrary nature of this decision, which seems to rely on the Daily Mail readership's inherent racism and the group's tiny membership for justification.

Al-Muhajiroun, rightfully, have few friends: but this means that none of the usual liberal voices will stand up for their right to be as offensive as they like. The BNP has a couple of elected MEPs, and so there will be voices raised in their defence if proscription is suggested (this government's disgraceful way out of that particular Gordian knot was to pressure the BBC to refuse access to the airwaves for Nick Griffin while not banning the party).

I guess all this means that I'm actually a liberal. If I were a proper Trotskyist, as I often fondly imagine I am, I'd be all for the arbitrary exercise of power. Only liberals worry about equal rights and freedom of speech. Damn.