Muslims tense as French fanatic allowed to tour UK

LONDON: Britain’s Muslim organisations have questioned why the British government has allowed extremist far-right leader of France’s Front National and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Marine Le-Pen to enter Britain and speak at public events.
The daughter of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le-Pen, who took over the party leadership from her father in 2011, has been accused of stoking hatred towards Muslims in Europe and calling for a restriction of their freedom. Her supporters in France openly preach hatred against Muslims and immigrants and call for their expulsion.
British government has banned several Muslim figures from entering Britain including Hameed Gul, former Inter-Services Intelligence chief, televangelist Zakir Naek, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Ghulam Ahmed Bilour for supporting pro-Taliban views. All of these people have been accused of making hate speeches and causing danger to “community cohesion” but anti-racism campaigners fear that Marine Le Pen’s visit will encourage racists in Britain who admire her views and are openly Islamophobic. A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said that Britain fortunately has a tradition of tolerance and accommodation that rightly scorns Le Pen and her ilk. “However the danger is that it will embolden the extremist right wing in the UK.”
About 200 people protested when Ms Pen went to Cambridge University to speak to students at the Cambridge Union debating society under the banner of Cambridge Unite Against Fascism (CUAF) and National Union of Students’ Black Students’ Campaign. Weyman Bennett, national secretary for Unite Against Fascism (UAF) which led the protest, told The News Ms Le Pen’s visit to the Union was a “real insult because she is looking for respectability and the Cambridge Union is giving that to her”. Ms Le Pen told students she had come to confront the “caricature” that had been made of her party by the “elite” across Europe, specifically Britain and did not want to be compared to the British racial nationalist party, the National Front and the British National Party (BNP).
Arsalan Ghani, President of the Cambridge Union Graduate Union who was one of the organisers of the protest, while talking to The News criticised the Cambridge Union Society (CUS) for inviting Ms Le Pen. “The CUS has gained a reputation to invite fascists, far-right and dubious speakers under the guise of ‘freedom of speech’ – thereby giving them a platform to propagate their ideas,” Ghani said, adding the demonstration against Le Pen shows that there are progressive forces present in Cambridge which are against racism and fascism.
Student Rights, a group supporting equality, democracy and freedom from extremism on university campuses, called for Cambridge University to investigate the decision to invite Le Pen to speak. In a statement, it added: “Universities do have a duty to uphold freedom of speech, but they are no place for the promotion of fascist views, and university authorities have a duty of care to their students to protect them from those who would promote hatred.” A Home Office spokesman refused to comment why it has not banned the entry of Ms Le Pen on hate speech grounds.