Anonymous, the online activist movement, has taken down the website of the Westboro Baptist Church, home of the ‘God Hates Fags’ campaign group that pickets the funerals of US soldiers whose death the group blames on an acceptance of homosexuality by the USA.

It is alleged that the church made up previous threats to crash their websites by the group.

Anonymous has taken down the main website of the church together with their other websites, including the charmingly named PriestsRapeBoys.com as well as GodHatesAmerica.com, GodHatesTheWorld.com, JewsKilledJesus.com and AmericaIsDoomed.com.

The one page of the website that does resolve contains a letter from the Anonymous group that says the church’s website has been “seized by Anonymous under section #14 of the rules of the Internet.”

The church had begun a hate campaign against Anonymous and claimed that it was under threat, something that Anonymous said was a lie and a publicity stunt.

In their posting announcing the hack, Anonymous said: “Your continued biting of the Anonymous hand, however, has earned you a swift and emotionless bitchslap, in the form of this very message. Despite having had the capability to hack your sites previously, we chose not to and instead responded maturely to your threats, but you have not respected this.

“For this unremitting display of overzealousness, we award you no points. Take this defacement as a simple

warning: go away. The world (including Anonymous) disagrees with your hateful messages, but you have the right to voice them. This does not mean you can jump onto Anonymous for attention.”

The message ends with the statement: “God hates fags: assumption. Anonymous hates leeches: fact.”

In 2009, the God Hates Fags founder, Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper were banned from entering the UK.