LONDON — Britain on Tuesday published its first list of people barred from entering the country for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred, including Muslim extremists, a right-wing U.S. radio host, an Israeli settler and jailed Russian gang members.
The U.K.’s law-and-order chief, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, said she decided to publish the names of 16 of 22 people who have been banned by the government since October so others could better understand what sort of behavior Britain was not prepared to tolerate.
She cited unidentified “public interest” reasons for not disclosing the six other names.
“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,” Smith told GMTV.
Some of the people on the list criticized it, and one analyst said it contains a wide variety of people to avoid giving Britain’s Muslims the impression that it singles them out.
Popular American talk-radio host Michael Savage, who broadcasts from San Francisco and has called the Muslim holy book, the Koran, a “book of hate,” is on the list. Savage also has enraged parents of children with autism by saying in most cases it’s “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.”
Savage told the conservative website that he was considering legal action against Smith for defamation. “She’s linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses? For my speech?” the site quoted him as saying Tuesday.
The list includes Americans Stephen “Don” Black, founder of a Florida-based white-supremacist website, and anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps Sr., who leads a church in Topeka, Kan. Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, who also is on the list, have picketed the funerals of AIDS victims and U.S. soldiers and claim the soldiers’ deaths are God’s punishment for tolerance of homosexuality.
The list also includes Yunis Al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza; Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man once jailed for murdering four Israelis; Egyptian cleric Safwat Hijazi; and Israeli settler Mike Guzovsky, who Britain’s Home Office said was involved with military training camps.
Also banned from entering Britain are Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, two leaders of a Russian gang. They were imprisoned for 10 years in Russia last year for their role in racially motivated killings of 19 people.
