BBC NEWS | England | London | Eid festival flag ban criticised
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Eid festival flag ban criticised
Religious leaders have hit out at a ban on flags at a Muslim festival.
Police claim waving flags during the Eid-ul-Adha celebrations in Southall, west London, on 21 and 22 January could provoke violence and racial tensions.
The Met said anyone who persisted in ignoring the ban could be arrested for breaching the peace.
Sadiq Khan, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he failed to see "how the carrying of national flags causes anti-social behaviour".
'Faith celebrations'
Mr Khan, chairman of the council's legal affairs committee, said: "This is the first time I can recall someone being prohibited from waving a national flag in a public place, other than a sports occasion, in the mainland UK.
"I can't see the legal justification for this.
Whether you agree or disagree with the way people celebrate a festival they are not doing anything against the law."
Ealing police, who made the request for people not to take flags, said the celebrations were faith celebrations and therefore had no link to any national flag.
A police spokesman said that in the past waving flags has "sometimes led to the incitement of violence, racial tension and breaches of peace between groups in the Southall area".
"Local community representatives have been consulted on our policing strategy. They fully support our tackling of anti-social behaviour to help preserve the dignity of this religious occasion," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4167765.stm