In her first major test of being tough on extremism, Theresa May, the new Home Secretary, said she was banning Zakir Naik from entering the UK. Dr Naik, a 44-year-old Indian televangelist, had been due to give a series of lectures at arenas in Wembley Arena and Sheffield.
The Home Secretary can exclude or deport an individual if she thinks that their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more
The 'Conservative Muslim Forum' has some explaining to do .... So, do the Conservative Muslim Forum approve of the decision of the Home Secretary? Or do they think the invitation to this now-banned extremist from a charity they praised and financed should have gone ahead? If there is to be agreement within the Conservative Party I think we should probably be told. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more
If we care about free speech, let these Muslim speakers in This is just the latest in a series of "naming and shaming" exclusion orders that began a couple of years ago when the former Labour government said that it would introduce a policy of banning "preachers of hate" from visiting the UK. At the end of last month the Sunday Times ran an article about Zakir Naik that seems to have panicked some people in the government. [Guardian Cif] Read more
