The far-right Danish Islamophobe Rasmus Paludan has been denied entry to the UK after he vowed to burn the Quran in Wakefield on Wednesday.
Responding to a question by Wakefield MP Simon Lightwood, Home Office Minister Tom Tugendhat said Paludan had been added to a “warnings index” and would not be allowed into the country to carry out the desecration.
“Far-right Islamophobic Danish politician Rasmus Paludan said he’s going to travel from Denmark to Wakefield for the sole purpose of burning a Quran in a public place,” Lightwood said in the House of Commons earlier today.
“Mr. Paludan was previously jailed in Denmark for his hateful and racist statements. He’s a dangerous man that should not be allowed into this country. Can the Home Secretary assure me and my community that the government is taking action to prevent this?”
Tugendhat replied: “Now I inform the house that Mr. Paludan has been added to the warnings index and therefore his travel to the United Kingdom would not be conducive with the public good and he will not be allowed access.”
In a social media video, Paludan said that he would travel to Wakefield to burn a copy of Quran in protest against “undemocratic forces” who had opposed the desecration of the Holy Book by a 14 year old boy at Kettlethorpe High School.
Paludan made several derogatory references to the Quran and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the same video.
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Since he made the video 5Pillars understands that Muslim community leaders have been lobbying the Home office and West Yorkshire Police to ensure that the desecration does not go ahead.
In January Paludan, who is the leader of the far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm with police protection and permission from Swedish authorities.
The following week he burned a copy of the Holy Book in front of a mosque in Denmark.
In September 2020 Paludan wrote on Facebook. “Islam is an evil and primitive religion that has no place in Denmark, Sweden, or any other civilised society.”
Paludan frequently fuels his supporters with Islamophobic rhetoric, telling them that Denmark is solely for “ethnic Danes,” that he wants to deport the country’s more than 300,000 Muslims, that he wants to outlaw Islam, and that “civil war is coming.”
In April 2019 Paludan was found guilty of racism for the racist remarks he made in a video near the house of Black Lives Matter Denmark’s spokesman.
In the video, Paludan made links between Africans and low intelligence, which was deemed by the court to be unlawful and was considered hate speech.
