Ban on Naik was among first actions

LONDON: One of the first acts that led to Theresa May being perceived as a tough home secretary was banning controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik, whose five-year

LONDON: One of the first acts that led to Theresa May being perceived as a tough home secretary was banning controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik, whose five-year UK visa was cancelled hours before he was scheduled to take off from Mumbai six years ago.

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May, set to take over as prime minister, had been in the post for a little more than a month after the May 2010 elections. Reports in the British media had highlighted Naik’s controversial views and his forthcoming visit to deliver lectures at major events in Sheffield, Wembley and Birmingham.

The Home Office investigated Naik and, using discretionary powers to exclude individuals from entering Britain, May decided on June 16 his presence in Britain would not be conducive to public good.

The next day, the deputy British high commission in Mumbai delivered Naik a letter, cancelling his visa and informing him May had “decided to exclude you from the UK for engaging in unacceptable behaviour by making statements that attempt to justify terrorist activity and fostering hatred”.

Naik, currently in focus after it emerged that one of the attackers who targeted a cafe in Dhaka had followed the preacher on social media, had travelled around 15 times to Britain, delivering lectures. In August 2006, a Welsh MP expressed concern over the contents of his lecture in Cardiff. May used 11 controversial public statements by Naik in the decade following 1997 as evidence of “unacceptable behaviour”, incorporated in law after the 2005 London bombings.