Cameron to call for preachers of hate to be banned from the UK

ConservativeHome has been given an advance copy of what David Cameron will say at the first meeting of the CDU-Conservative Party working group later today.

Responding to the news that Yusuf al-Qaradawi may be granted a visa, Cameron will call on Gordon Brown to act quickly and ban preachers of hate from entering the country.

Peter Cuthbertson made this point on CentreRight on Sunday.

We will be there to check against delivery and listen to the Q&A. As always if you have any good questions we will try to ask one on your behalf.

We've put the speech into bitesize chunks below.  Download a PDF of David Cameron's remarks in full.

Facing up to terrorists like we did in the past: "Britain and Germany don’t need to explain terrorism to one another. In previous decades, where Britain faced down the IRA, Germany faced down Baader-Meinhof. Now, we face the same threat. Last summer, extremists tried to set off a car bomb in the centre of London outside a packed nightclub... and German police arrested three militants suspected of planning large-scale terrorist attacks against several sites."

Twin-pronged approach: "On the one hand, we need effective counter-terrorism operations. This means our intelligence services working closely together to monitor and counteract any terrorist activity. Sharing information so we know where people are, what they are doing, and what they are planning to do. On the other hand, we need to build stronger societies at home."

Multiculturalism should shoulder some blame: "It is clear we both share the same problem – people raised in our country but who feel so separated from our society that at its worst, compels them to murder their fellow citizens... There are many factors at work – including, of course, poverty and racism. There is also the fact that failed doctrine of multiculturalism has fostered difference by treating faith communities as monolithic blocks rather than individual citizens."

The Londonistan approach: "Another factor at work is the influence of some Muslim preachers and intellectuals that actively encourage cultural separation and advocate values that run completely contrary to our way of life. For years, we left people in our midst preaching hatred and sowing division. We now know what a mistake the ‘Londonistan’ approach was. It was wrong in theory and wrong in practice. It undermined our credibility abroad. And it led to dreadful results. But we don’t seem to have learned our lesson."

Learning from Moussawi mistake: "We are making the same mistakes again – allowing people to enter our country to spout hate. People like Ibrahim Moussawi, head of Hezbollah’s viciously anti-Semitic TV station, Al-Manar. Despite Pauline-Neville Jones asking the Home Secretary to refuse his entry to this country, he was allowed to speak in Manchester in December…and has been invited on a speaking tour of five British cities from the end of next month."

Yusuf al-Qaradawi: "This is a man who, incidentally, Mayor Ken Livingstone calls the best hope for progress in Islam. He has been banned from the USA since 1999. He is opposed to secularism and who believes that the penalty for homosexuality is death. And he has defended the use of terrorism in Israel and Iraq. Despite this, news reports say that it’s been recommended to the Government that he be given permission to enter the country."

We already have the ability to take action: "The Home Secretary can exclude entry on the grounds of national security or that someone’s presence would not be conducive to the public good. And we’ve got a Prime Minister who says has “no toleration for preachers of hate who call for violence, who call for murder” and that he wants to “isolate Islamic extremists who.. seek to manipulate and divide our society". So what is the Government waiting for?"

7th February update: Tory victory on Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Comments

[ToryJim]

"He is opposed to secularism and who believes that the penalty for homosexuality is death..."

OK - should we run a straw poll and see what hard-line Christian preachers think about homosexuality and secularism?

[Editor]

Can you name a "hard-line Christian preacher" who wants the death penalty for gay people ToryJim?

[Paul Oakley]

Does Jerry Falwell count Tim?

On Falwell's "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcast (March 11, 1984), when the mostly gay Metropolitan Community Church was almost accepted into the World Council of Churches, Falwell called them "brute beasts" and stated, "this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven."

Mind you, he's dead.

Top notch stuff from DC BTW.

[Tony Makara]

"Multiculturalism should shoulder some blame"

At last politicians are gaining the courage to talk about this taboo. Many areas of Britain are now Ghettos and have their own culture, social norms, even their own economy with child labour and have become no-go areas for outsiders. No wonder people feel alienated and no wonder many turn against the world beyond their ghetto.

[Deputy Editor]

Tony Makara, NB: That phrase is my summary of that paragraph not a verbatim Cameron phrase.

[Tony Makara]

Deputy Editor, I know but I thought it articulated the situation perfectly. So I used it.

[Dave]

Cameron has done the right thing and withdrawn the whip from Conway.

Over to you Gordon.....

[Helen Smith]

Absolutely right - glad DC is saying this.

[powellite]

I very much agree with the sentiments being expressed, but hesitate over whether this is the right thing to do. Ultimately, it's banning free speech. Yes, what he's saying may not be to the 'public good', and I disagree with him wholeheartedly, but then what criteria are used to determine the 'public good?' It sounds distinctly authoritarian to my mind.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Don't care whether it's authoritarian or not. Laws are already in place to get these people out of our country or stop them coming in. Why they are so rarely used is a mystery to me.

[Andy B]

The points highlighted above for me signal the first signs that Cameron might just have the guts to start addressing some critical issues.

I wonder if he's going to break the taboo surrounding the EU, and dare to ask the question about whether it is in our interests to remain in.

[Mr Angry]

Cameron's position is just empty posturing unless he also calls for action against the home grown preachers of hate and those who already have the right of abode here. The idea that it is only foreign preachers of hate who constitutte a serious threat is a myth and a pretty thin one at that.