American right-wing activists banned from entering UK

The American campaigners have been barred from entering Britain to join a planned EDL rally in Woolwich this Saturday.

Controversial right wing activist Pamela Geller rose to prominence during protests against a planned Muslim centre near the Ground Zero site in New York and is a co-founder of Stop Islamization of America with Robert Spencer.

The pair have built close links with EDL leader Stephen Lennon and invited him to New York to speak last year, leading to his later arrest and jailing for travelling on a friend’s passport.

The nation that gave the world the Magna Carter is dead. Pamela Geller

A Home Office letter to Geller explained Britain’s measures for deporting extremists under an unacceptable behaviour policy, it confirms that Theresa May personally approved the decision to ban her.

The letter claimed Geller may make “statements that may foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK”.

On Tuesday Home Affairs Committee Chairman Keith Vaz called for them to be denied visas.

The Home Office letter highlights two statements by Geller in their decision to enforce a ban: “Al-Qaeda is a manifestation of devout Islam… it is Islam” and “If the Jew dies, the Muslims will dies as well: their survival depends on their constant jihad, because without it they will lose the meaning and purpose of their existence”.

Reacting to the decision on her blog, Atlas Shrugs, Geller stated “the nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead”.

“In not allowing us into the country solely because of our true and accurate statements about Islam, the British government is behaving like a de facto Islamic state.”

Planned demonstration

Stephen Lennon is planning to walk 17 miles from Westminster to Woolwich on Saturday accompanied by co-founded Kevin Carroll. He will be joined for the last half mile of the journey by EDL supporters from across the country.

He has called his journey the “Walk of Honour” and a message on the EDL website warns: “Tommy and Kev will be walking alone through some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of London. A scary prospect for any man but for the two leaders of the EDL; they are brave men”.

The EDL have used the murder of Lee Rigby to justify their confrontational anti-Islam street protests. Geller had planned to give a speech at the EDL gathering, which was planned to coincide with Armed Forces Day.