Britain bans Zakir Naik from entering country

LONDON: Britain has banned Indian preacher Zakir Naik, who claimed that “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” from entering the country, a paper reported on Friday, citing the interior minister.

Zakir Naik, a 44-year-old television preacher, had been due to give a series of lectures in London and northern England but new Home Secretary Theresa May decided to bar him, said the Daily Telegraph.

“Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK,” said May.

Naik had been filmed on a website making inflammatory comments, interior ministry sources said.

According to the Telegraph, in a web posting from 2006, Naik 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 he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, every Muslim should be a terrorist,” the post said.

Published in Th Express Tribune, June 19th, 2010.