There’s Omar Bakri Muhammad, the “Tottenham Ayatollah” who raged against the Spice Girls and other manifestations of decadent Britain (I’m sort of with him on that), now somewhere in Lebanon. And Abu Hamza, who’s finally stateside after years of making a valuable contribution to British life. What about Jamaican-born Abdullah el-Faisal – nothing like the zeal of a convert – who’s back in the West Indies after a long spell in London ranting and raving.

All of these characters became public faces in Britain in 2000s: like all extremists, amusing until they or their followers succeed. Abu Hamza radicalised the 7/7 bombers and el-Faisel one of the 9/11 plotters, as well as Richard Reid, who would not be such a figure of fun had he succeeded.

Now Abu Qatada is the last one left, the O’Toole to their Reed, Burton and Harris. I’ve written before about the philosophical arguments against allowing him to stay and the immigration problems he personifies; all that can be added is that it’s a shame that it’s taken so long for us to take these people seriously.

It’s also a shame that for many people they have become the face of Islam. The week before last I spent time with a group of British Muslims raising money for the Royal British Legion. The men belong to the Ahmadiyya, an Islamic reformist movement that began almost a century ago in British India. The Ahmadiyya had been raising money for British charities such as Save the Children and Barnardo’s for 30 years, but began selling poppies three years ago, and hope to top last year’s record of £20,000. The group follow “divine reformer” Hadhrat Ahmad, who was born in 1835 in what is now Pakistan and from 1889 began a mission to revive Islam. After his death some followers proclaimed Ahmad as the promised messiah (Imam Mahdi), which is where the group diverges from orthodox Islam.

Editor: Despite some factual mistakes about the birth place and actual claim of the founder of the movement, the article is good.

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