London, June 18 (IANS) Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik who claimed ‘every Muslim should be terrorist’ has been banned from entering Britain, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
Naik, 44-year-old tele-evangelist, was due to deliver a series of lectures in Wembley Arena and Sheffield.
Britain’s new Home Secretary Theresa May said she was banning Naik from entering the country as the ‘numerous comments’ he made were evidence of his ‘unacceptable behaviour’.
‘Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and I am not wiling to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK,’ May told The Daily Telegraph.
‘Exclusion powers are very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate on issues.’
According to Home Office sources, Naik had been shown on a website making inflammatory comments such as ‘every Muslim should be a terrorist’.
He said: ‘When a robber sees a policeman he’s terrified. So for a robber, a policeman is a terrorist. So in this context, every Muslim should be a terrorist to the robber’.
He has also been filmed saying: ‘There are many Jews who are good to Muslims, but as a whole… The Quran tells us, as a whole, they will be our staunchest enemy’.
In a web posting in 2006 he said: ‘Beware of Muslims saying Osama bin Laden is right or wrong. I reject them… we don’t know.
‘But if you ask my view, if given the truth, if he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. I don’t know what he’s doing. I’m not in touch with him. I don’t know him personally. I read the newspaper.
‘If he is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, every Muslim should be a terrorist’.
He is also reported to have said that western women make themselves ‘more susceptible to rape’ by wearing revealing clothing.
