Named and publicized: The 16 barred from Britain
We read:
"Sixteen people banned from entering the UK were "named and shamed" by the Home Office today. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to make public the names of 16 people banned since October so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate. The list includes hate preachers, anti-gay protesters and a far- right US talk show host.
"I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country," Ms Smith told GMTV. "Coming to this country is a privilege. If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded.
"We are publishing the names of 16 of those that we have excluded since October. We are telling people who they are and why it is we don't want them in this country." She said the number of people excluded from Britain had risen from an average of two a month to five a month since October.
The list of the 16 "least wanted" includes radio talk show host Michael Savage, real name Michael Weiner. "This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast.
Also named are American Baptist pastor Fred Waldron Phelps Snr and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who have picketed the funerals of Aids victims and claimed the deaths of US soldiers are a punishment for US tolerance of homosexuality. Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal, Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black and neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe are also on the list released today.
Source
There is nothing wrong with this in principle. If I am entitled to say who is allowed to enter my house, surely a nation has a right to say who will enter it.
That the aim seems to be to suppress certain speech is however disturbing, but not as disturbing as it once would have been. I would guess that this ban is the best free advertising these guys could have got. Young people are inherently rebellious and many will resent attempts to hide things from them. And these days it takes only a few minutes on the net to find out all that these guys stand for. The British government has just given them all a huge boost towards getting their ideas out.
24 comments:
I kind of agree here. Surely the government has the right to say "we have enough of our own wackos who talk like you, we don't need foreigners coming here and doing it too."
That said, if this Savage guy is the ONLY radio talk host on the list, that should tell him something about the rhetoric he uses. If Rush and Coulter aren't on it, then he's clearly a bigger loud mouth than they are. Besides I'd not even heard of this guy before this article.
If the British government keeps this philosophy, it will make Lindis Percy happy. She's been trying to get the US military out of Britain for years. Under the current US policy, the military doesn't tolerate openly gay people serving.
Michael Savage tends to use incendiary invectives when referring to homosexuals, muslims, and liberals - and that is a legitimate criticism against him.
My question is - did he request a visa and was told "no" or is this just a list of people they really, really, really don't like?
Either way, they just boosted Mike's short-term ratings (is it sweeps month here? That would have been a wonderful irony...) and exposed themselves to his wrath.
Those who follow Mike, while not large by comparison of other talk-radio hosts, are passionate (if ill-informed on some topics). They will see this as just another "attack" on their hero.
I have heard Michael Savage's show. The man is animated in his speech, and his anger at the PC crowd is not hidden, but he has NEVER called for any kind of violent reaction from his listeners.
He is most certainly not against Immigration. He, himself, is the son of an immigrant who came here legally. He is against those who come into this country illegally, and he is against any kind of amnesty for these people because they do not respect the immigration laws and policies of America.
Many of the statements attributed to him are false, and based on hearsay by a person who has most likely never even listened to his show, only the cherry-picked sound bytes provided to stir up controversy against him.
I am no big fan of his, but he should not be banned from a country simply for speaking his mind. And he certainly should not be lumped in the same category as child-killers and terrorists. That is insane.
I don't think it was a good idea to name names as that gives those persons a maybe undeserved fame (or infamy). Free speech is for citizens and residents who don't advocate criminal activities including assault and murder. Foreigners have very limited rights, and a country has the right to exclude any non-citizen without explanation, tho' one ought to be given and the opportunity to appeal.
2:43 & 6 - presumably the same xenophobe/anglophobe - your comments are retarded!
I don't see any of the Jihadist hate preeching muslims on the list...how convenient.
~darko
You mean besides the preacher from Egypt and the leader of Hamas?
What fun it would be if someone entered Britain to speak, and after he was done speaking, set up conference call equipment, dialed up Michael Savage, and let him speak freely to the same audience. Britain might keep his body out, but can't keep his voice out so easily.
" They will see this as just another "attack" on their hero."
---Mike is no hero of mine, but he should be allowed entry to England. He's not a terrorist, he's not a drug trafficker, he's just inflammatory. Why fear that?
Well it's hardly surprising is it?
Fox News ridiculed the Canadian Armed Forces because they needed to regroup after fighting the people who attacked America.
That's real gratitude, isn't it?
To the Brit-loving socialist pansy's who've commented here. Remember, it was Winston Churchill who came "begging" the US for help when the Nazi's were about 20 minutes away from walking into London. And there was no reason for us to rush in, since it wasn't our war. We only got involved to save the pansy-nation. Again!
"Perhaps you would like open a history book and see how the U.K.stood alongside the U.S. against the Soviet menace,"
The real Soviet menace was in England, since that's where most of the Soviet spies were. And they weren't Russian.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
"Home Office officials say Michael Savage, real name Michael Weiner, holds abhorrent views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism, which have caused great offence in America. That may be so. But are we now banning people because we don't like what they think or say; or are we accepting that anyone who responds violently to a view of which they disapprove can effectively veto other people's right to free speech?"
– Philip Johnston
The last comment is IMHO the best.
The issue isn't, should the UK be free to choose who enters and under what circumstances. The question is - what is the standard they apply.
Unfortunately it looks very much like viewpoint discrimination. It isn't based on objective considerations but on whether what someone says agrees with your viewpoint. This is objectionable in any government.
To the Brit-hating poster (did you have a cruel English nanny?).
The US knew full well it couldn't isolate itself from the Nazi threat, and it was in its own interests to support Britain's resistance to invasion by the "lend-lease" scheme, etc. (Tho' war loans had to be paid back!) It was not an act of altruism to "save" Britain or Europe, but in the US's own national interests, as one would expect.
As for Soviet spies and sympathizers, there were a few of those in the US as well.
Let's count together... HOW many moosllims are banned? Uh, uh, uh, NONE!
"Let's count together... HOW many moosllims are banned? Uh, uh, uh, NONE!"
Apart from, the egyptian cleric (most likely a muslim), and the Hamas MP (most likely a muslim).
Did you actually read the list?
"To the Brit-loving socialist pansy's who've commented here."
I'm not Pro-Britain, I'm Anti-Douchebag, that's why we're not getting along.
Now leave your mum out of this.
Amazing how Great Britain has no problem with hate spouting muslims but is afraid of a loud mouth talk show host.
EXCLUSIONS
Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal
Yunis Al Astal
Samir Al Quntar
Stephen Donald Black
Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim
Erich Gliebe
Mike Guzovsky
Safwat Hijazi
Nasr Javed
Abdul Ali Musa
Fred Waldron Phelps Snr
Shirley Phelps-Roper
Artur Ryno
Amir Siddique
Pavel Skachevsky
Michael Alan Weiner
7 of those names are obviously islamic sounding. 7/16. 43.75%.
So can we stop with this ridiculous lie that 'muslims aren't on the list'??
"Home Office officials say Michael Savage, real name Michael Weiner, holds abhorrent views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism,.."
My daughter has Autism and I agree with everything he said about Autism. I also agree with his views on ILLEGAL immigration and Islam and have not heard him mention anything about rape.
There is no reason to put him on the list and I trust our British cousins will remove him from it.
...anon...
Don't forget. You can't judge a persons race/heritage/other by their name.
I think someone would say you are "Raaaacist" ;-)
Ah. But I didn't say which seven names sounded islamic.
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