British Home Secretary David Blunkett appealed to his country’s Court of Appeal to keep Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan out of Britain.
Farrakhan has been banned from Britain since 1986 because previous home secretaries feared his presence could lead to public disorder, according to Guardian. But he successfully challenged the ban in 2000 and now Blunkett hopes the Court of Appeal will reinstate the ban.
Allowing a visit by Farrakhan would inflame tensions between Jews and Muslims and would “pose a significant threat to community relations and public order,” Monica Carss-Frisk, spokeswoman for the home secretary, told BBC NEWS.
Carss-Frisk told the Court of Appeal that the right to freedom of expression mentioned in the Human Rights Convention does not apply to allowing non-nationals into the country.
Farrakhan has described whites as “devils” and has said Judaism is a “gutter religion,” according to Guardian.
Carss-Frisk and Blunkett expressed concern that Farrakhan’s messages of hate would be particularly disruptive at this time of political unrest in the Middle East.
The Court of Appeal has not yet ruled on the case.
Britain has banned other controversial political and social figures in the past.
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification church; Don Treshman, leader of the radical anti-abortion group Rescue America; Martin Galvin, leader of Noraid which supports the IRA; and William Pierce, former American Nazi party officer and leader of the National Alliance are among those banned from Britain, Guardian reported.
