American Radio Host Michael Savage & Kashmiri Terrorist Leader Banned from UK — Update: Video Added
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 5, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
Brash, outspoken conservative Michael Savage is considered a threat to the UK. He, as well as Baptist pastors, have been recently denied entrance into the United Kingdom for either being rebel rousers, dissenters, extremists, or are simply people who have demonstrated “unacceptable behavior” or have expressed undesirable opinions, as determined by a handful of British officials.
I’ve never listened to Savage, but it seems bizarre that a radio entertainer in one country can be banned from entry into another simply because of their opinions. Especially if those opinions aren’t of the “All capitalists must die like pigs” variety.
Per SkyNews, 16 people have been banned from entering the UK in the last six months and have been ‘named and shamed’ publicly by the Home Office.
The Baptist pastors and conservative radio host Michael Savage have the honor of sharing occupation on the same list as Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed and Russian gang leader Pavel Skachevsky.
I didn’t see Michael Moore or Al Franken on the list, nor Janeane Garofalo or Keith Olbermann or Sandra Bernhard for their hate speech. What about William Ayres or Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Al Sharpton? They may not have asked to be allowed to enter the UK. Or they could all be on the longer, unpublished list, right up there with “who knows who.” Would it be reasonable to assume that Howard Stern would also be on the UK list for his outrageous behavior?
As I said previously, I’ve never listened to Savage, but from what I’ve heard from a few others, he can make Mark Levin sound like a pussycat.
Savage, a conservative talk show host with a loyal audience for the past 15 years, is one of a growing list of people who aren’t allowed into the UK. Love him or hate him, Savage is creative. He has coined many nicknames for President Obama, including Giggles, The Professor, and Chairman Mao-Bama.
No one is off limits from his criticism: the controversial Savage has numerous nicknames for other conservative radio pundits, like calling Rush Limbaugh “The Golfer,” Sean Hannity “The Wallbanger,” Glenn Beck “The Hemmorhoid with Ears,” and Bill O’Reilly “The Leprechaun.” Rather tame words when compared to what I would have thought a banned UK threat would be calling others. These nicknames carry as much evil threat as the British journalists’ nickname for Obama: “President Pantywaist.”
Should he be banned from the UK? I don’t know enough about their law to judge. Perhaps they believe keeping people out that they deem controversial will protect the nation. Although, oftentimes, such a heavy-handed exercise of power can bleed over into other areas of government control and could ultimately fire up the people to revolt.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told Sky News she was publishing the list so people could understand the “standards” of behaviour Britain expected.
“I said in October I wanted to strengthen our ability to prevent people from coming to this country if they were doing things like promoting terrorism or other serious crime or expressing views that were likely to cause community tension and difficulties,” she said.
“It is a privilege to come to the UK. If you are not willing to uphold those standards, I don’t believe that privilege should be open to you.”
In total, 101 people – including radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri – have been banned from entering the UK in the past four years. A full list has not been made available. Additionally, the UK is now banning films that they deem undesireable. Uh-oh… I’m sure that kind of “government knows best” oppression isn’t sitting well at all with Brits.
U.K. Denies Entry to Islamic, Baptist Preachers, Michael Savage
Bloomberg | May 5, 2009
By Kitty DonaldsonMay 5 (Bloomberg) — U.S. radio broadcaster Michael Savage and the pastors of a Baptist church are among those barred from entering the U.K. for allegedly stirring-up hatred and fostering extremism, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.
Savage, whose real name is Michael Alan Weiner, has authored books such as “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder” and was one of 22 foreigners named by Smith as ineligible to visit Britain. She published a list of those banned between October 2008 and March 2009 for “fostering extremism or hatred.”
Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, which preaches against homosexuals, and fellow church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper, were also banned for “unacceptable behavior” that might stir up “inter-community violence” in the U.K.
“Coming to the U.K. is a privilege, and I refuse to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life,” Smith said in an e-mail today. “I will not hesitate to name and shame those who foster extremist views. They are not welcome here.”
Britain has toughened measures to exclude so-called preachers of hate after the bombing of the London Underground and bus network in 2005. The rules also target Islamic clerics and people with links to the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government now is banning about five people a month under the current policy, more than double the previous rate.
Preachers Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Yunis Al Astal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique were also banned, the U.K. said. Also on the list were Mike Guzovsky, the leader of a violent group, and the creator of a white supremacist Web site Stormfront, Stephen Donald Black.
Web radio broadcaster Eric Gliebe was also denied entry as was Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who lead a gang accused of beating migrants
From his bio: Trained as a scientist, Savage holds Master’s degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Epidemiology and Nutritional Science. He spent decades searching and saving tropical rainforests.
Savage is also the author of 18 books, four of which are New York Times bestsellers: “The Political Zoo,” “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder,” “The Savage Nation,” and “The Enemy Within.”
I’m curious. Does the ban in Britain work both ways? If so, does this mean the UK won’t be hypocritical and will deport their own left-wing extremist comedian Russell Brand for his “undesirable behavior”? Yeah, thought not.
And I’m curious about all those national leaders who recently attended the G20. Some of them are card-carrying dictators and have nasty reputations for denying citizens in their country basic human rights and other heinous activities. Why does Britain consider Savage more of a threat than any of them?
US Hero Lt. Col. Allen West: Interviewed on “Savage Nation” radio program with Michael Savage | Broadcast April 2009 | Discusses shameful DHS report & Obama
Related reading:
SeattlePi.com: Britain publishes list of people banned from entry
Hot Air: The obligatory “Michael Savage banned from Britain” post
Weasel Zippers: UK Bans Michael Savage From Entering Country for Anti-Islam Views…
Jeffrey Jena, Big Hollywood: Let’s Ban Some Brits
The Victorious Opposition: UK Bans Geert Wilders and Britain’s Contribution To The Green Movement: “If I don’t breath, consume, or excrete, you won’t kill me then, right?”
Michelle Malkin: The trouble with Meghan McCain
and Savage vs. CAIR
Independent Conservative: Michael Savage Rips Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Promotes Boycott of Citgo! (includes audio, 2006)
Nice Deb: Michael Savage Banned In Britain
About the author
I don’t agree with Savage being banned.
However, Savage is no friend of free speech. Despite Savage painting himself as a champion of free speech, he is anything but. He took the organisation CAIR to court to prevent them from using snippets of his show on their website. He lost. However, had Savage prevailed, free speech would have lessened for us all. See:
http://tinyurl.com/27ladx
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Hey, Tony, nice of you to drop in to the blog. With all due respect, I think you may be confusing “free speech” with “copyright of intellectual properties.”
Free speech lets us say or write, within a few guidelines to protect the masses, what we wish, even if it is unpopular and criticizes the government. Copyright protection keeps others from taking our creative efforts (whether it be lifting a melody, a literary passage, or any other creation we come up with, like when former Beatles member George Harrison lost the lawsuit lodged against him by The Chiffons for taking their melody of “He’s So Fine” and turning it into “My Sweet Lord”), and using it without permission and/or monetary compensation. It’s plagiarism (like what Joe Biden did when he was in college). The two are vastly different. There are provisions in the law that permit for spoof and parody (like what Weird Al does with songs) and for “fair use” or “educational purposes.” CAIR can’t legally use anyone’s creative works without his or her blessing. Don’t know why he took them to court, but that was his legal right if they were using his material without permission. So maybe he was a jerk to do it, but maybe they were also jerks in trying to use the snippets without permission or in making a payment of royalty. I’ve never listened to him on the radio (and only recently even found out who Michael Savage is), so I’m not up on the specifics of the lawsuit.
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OK, I just now checked out your link you provided and in a much grander way, the article you directed me to covers what I did above. Michael Savage had every right legally to prevent usage of his material by anyone (like SNL preventing skits of their show being embedded on YouTube), but he probably went overboard on it. No banning of entry, no defamation of character like the UK has done, just protecting his intellectual property, which is likely his bread and butter. You do bring up an interesting irony. Thanks for the link and thanks for your well presented post. When I have a little more time, I’ll read what you provided further to see why he lost. Maybe it was that “fair use” stipulation. I’m up against a deadline right now, so regrettably can’t read the article as carefully as I’d like.
Oh, and just one more thing. I believe I read that he will be lodging his suit (if he actually does it) against the department that defamed him. Apparently, the UK has draconian defamation laws, and they broke it when they banned him entry based on their shallow evaluation and lumping him in with terrorists. So, we’ll see what happens… should be quite the ride.