For instance, he also announced the banning of two Islamic groups in conjunction with his proposals. One group supported the 9/11 bombings, and any reasonable person would accept that they would fall under that category. But another group, Hizb-al-Tahir, in fact opposes the use of violence and repudiates the evil actions of Bin Laden.

Hizb-al-Tahir is a group which calls for the unification of all the Middle Eastern states under a Caliphaite, similar to when the Muslims first took over the Middle East. This is similar to Bin Laden's aims. But in fact, Hizb-al-Tahir rejects the use of violence and has no ties whatsoever with Bin Laden. From a press release, reacting to an arrest of Al-Qaeda operatives:

Recently it has been consistently reported by the local press, that the provincial government of Sindh has detained Dr. Akmal Waheed and Dr. Arshad Waheed for one month under section 11-EEE of the anti- Terrorism Act due to their affiliation with al-Qaida, Jundullah and Hizb-ut-Tahrir. We would like to make it clear that the Waheed brothers have no affiliation with Hizb-ut-Tahrir nor have they had any affiliation in the past. We also condemn the government's efforts to bracket Hizb-ut-Tahrir as a militant group. It is widely known Hizb-ut-Tahrir is a political party based on Islam and it follows the method of Muhammad (saw) in working to establish the Islamic State.

We regard the use of terror or militancy in the establishment of the Khilafah as a contravention of the shari'ah. Rather we work to change the public opinion of the masses and convince the people of power and influence in society.

Unless the UK government can document their ties to Al-Qaeda and thus prove them liars, Blair clearly crossed even his own line when banning this group.

We all oppose the creation of a theocratic religious state of any kind, regardless of the religion. The problem with the formation of such a government is that the next question becomes, "which faction?" This leads to violence, such as the anti-Catholic Gordon riots during the Revolutionary War. These riots were in response to the government's legalization of Catholicism.

But groups such as Hizb-al-Tahir should be free to operate, just like we in America support the right of religious theocratic groups such as Focus on the Family to operate, even when we disagree 100% with that group's objectives.

Banning groups like that may make the law-and-order types feel better about exacting a little payback for the 7/7 bombings. But that does not solve the real problem that Western leaders still exhibit the 19th-century colonialist mentality that somehow we Western nations are superior to everyone else and therefore, the rest of the world should be dominated. The much harder, and right way to solve the problem of Muslim extremism is to look in the mirror and see what we can do to treat Muslims as equals rather than patronizing them.

Blair rightly spoke out against xenophobia in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks. But actions like the ones he took recently will only reinforce the kind of xenophobia that he himself spoke out against at Prime Minister's Questions on 7/13.