British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has banned United States talk show host Michael Savage, ex-Kach member Michael Guzofsky, a Hamas legislator, child murderer Sam Kuntar and eight Muslim clerics – all of whom were grouped together as "undesirable" visitors.
Britain published the list of 95 unwanted people for the first time since it was granted the power to do so three years ago. Six of the 22 who were banned over the past six months were not identified because doing so was “not in the public interest.”
Home Secretary Smith explained that the other names were made known so that people would know of the “values and standards” Britain stands for. “If you can’t live by the rules that we live by, we should exclude you from this country,” she added in a television interview.
Among those banned since October – although most of them have not asked to visit Britain - is Savage, who was listed by his official name Michael A. Weiner. Half of the people on the list are Muslim clerics or supporters of Muslim activity that attempt “to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence.”
The Home Office said all the banned people engaged in “unacceptable behavior.” Kuntar was freed Israel last year along with four other terrorists in exchanged for the bodies of kidnapped soldier Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Savage never has been charged or even suspected of terrorism but was determined by the Home Office to be guilty of “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.”
Guzofsky is a former leader of Kach, a Jewish nationalist group that both the U.S. and Israel have ruled to be illegal. Others on the list include Pakistan-based terrorist leader Nasr Javed and a convicted American-born Muslim cleric.
Savage, a popular radio personality whose program is broadcast coast-to-coast, replied to the publication of the list by calling Home Secretary Smith a “witch.” "She’s linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses? For my speech?” he told WorldNetDaily.
He said he is considering suing the Home Secretary for defamation and also called on listeners to boycott Britain. Savage asked why Britain did not include Kim Jong Il and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the list.
Other “undesirable” Americana are broadcaster Eric Glieb, who was accused by the Home Office of “provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred," and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black.
American preacher Rev. Fred Phelps and his daughter, fierce opponents of homosexuality, also were banned for “engaging in unacceptable behavior and fostering hatred." His website termed Smith “a neo-Nazi dyke [and] G-d hater.” Britain also barred two Russian skinheads.
Prime Minister Gordon rejected protests that the government ban limits freedom of speech and justified the inclusion of broadcasters and convicted murderers. "Our general position is that we do want to make a distinction between reasonable and moderate debate and actions that deliberately set out to create tensions,” he stated.
Earlier this year, the Home Office allowed Ibrahim Moussawi, linked with Hizbullah, to enter the country but banned Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, whose “Fitna” film against Muslim terrorism has angered the Arab world.