London: Britain has banned a radical Indian preacher, who claimed that "every Muslim should be a terrorist," from entering the country, a paper reported Friday, citing the interior minister.
Zakir Naik, a 44-year-old television preacher, had been due to give a series of lectures in London and northern England, but new Home Secretary Theresa May has decided to bar him. Theresa told this to the Daily Telegraph.
"I have excluded Dr Naik from the UK," said May, cited by the paper. "Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behaviour.
"Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK."
May, a Conservative politician who became home secretary in the new government last month, has the power to exclude or deport an individual if she believes their presence in Britain could be dangerous.
Naik had been filmed on a website making inflammatory comments, interior ministry sources told the newspaper.
According to the Telegraph, in a web posting from 2006, he said: "Beware of Muslims saying Osama bin Laden is right or wrong. I reject them... we don't know.
"But if you ask my view, if given the truth, if he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. I don't know what he's doing. I'm not in touch with him. I don't know him personally. I read the newspaper.
"If he is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, every Muslim should be a terrorist."
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, June 18, 2010, 13:21