White supremacists, Islamic clerics, a controversial Kansas pastor and a U.S. talk show host are on a list of 22 people banned from Britain for "stirring up hatred," the British government said Tuesday.
Britain’s Home Office said it decided to exclude the 22 in the last several months. That decision follows measures introduced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last year against people “who have engaged in spreading hate,” the Home Office said. The Home Office named only 16 of those on the list; it said it was not in the public interest to disclose the names of the other six. A spokeswoman declined to elaborate on why the Home Office would not publicly identify six of the 22. One of the most recognized names on the list may be U.S. radio talk show host Michael Savage, who is listed under his real name, Michael Alan Wiener. The conservative’s daily show can be heard nationwide in the United States. Savage is on the list for “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.” Outspoken Kansas Reverend Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, are also listed for “engaging in unacceptable behavior and fostering hatred.” Phelps and his followers at Westboro Baptist Church oppose homosexuality. They picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying their deaths are God’s way of punishing the United States for supporting homosexuals. They have expressed similar views about the victims of the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina.
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Web site: UK Home Office
The church’s trademark slogan — which is also its Web address — is “God Hates Fags.” Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black, who has said he despises U.S. President Barack Obama, is also on the list. Black established the white supremacist Web site Stormfront, one of what the Home Office called the oldest and largest hate group sites. Eric Gliebe, chairman of the National Alliance, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States, is on the list for “justifying terrorist violence, provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred.” The Home Office cited Gliebe’s “Web-radio broadcasts in which he vilifies certain ethnic groups and encourages the download and distribution of provocative racist leaflets and posters.” Several Islamic clerics are also on the list, including Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Amir Siddique, Yunis Al Astal, and Safwat Hijazi. Prolific speaker and writer Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim is also listed. The list includes Mike Guzofsky, the leader of a militant Jewish group. He has ties to Kahane Chai, a group that the U.S. State Department lists as a foreign terrorist organization. Russian skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky are also on the list. The Home Office says they are “leaders of a violent gang that beat migrants and posted films of their attacks on the Internet.” Samir al Quntar, a Lebanese man who spent three decades in prison for killing four Israeli soldiers and a 4-year-old girl in 1979, is also on the list. Israel freed Quntar last year in an exchange with Hezbollah for the bodies of two dead Israeli soldiers. Quntar is “engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence” in order to provoke terrorist acts, the Home Office said. Nasr Javed and Abdul Ali Musa round out the 16 names made public Tuesday. “Coming to the UK is a privilege, and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,” Smith, the home secretary, said. “Therefore, I do not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views as I want them to know that they are not welcome here. “The government opposes extremism in all its forms and I am determined to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country,” she said. “This is the driving force behind tighter rules on exclusions for unacceptable behavior.”
