Hunt for banned cleric who was let into Britain

Firebrand: Raad Salah was charged with anti-Semitism over a speech
12 April 2012

Police were today searching for a banned Islamic extremist who was able to enter Britain unchallenged.

Raad Salah walked through border controls at the weekend only days after Home Secretary Theresa May excluded him for his anti-Semitic views.

Guards are supposed to check all passengers against security watchlists but they failed to spot him or turn him away. A Whitehall source told the Standard that Ms May is furious and has ordered police to track him down and deport him.

It is understood detectives went to an event Mr Salah was due to attend last night at Conway Hall in central London but he did not show up.

The radical, who lives in Israel, came to Britain at the invitation of Left-wing Labour MPs to give a speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week.

The disclosure comes two weeks after the Home Secretary launched the Government's anti-extremism Prevent strategy, which said ministers would no longer tolerate those who hold views likely to foster hatred or division. Keeping out terror suspects and extremists on government watchlists was one of its central aims.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who used to chair the counter-terrorism parliamentary sub-committee, said: "These are the same mistakes that have been going on for a decade now and which the new government vowed to correct. How has this been allowed to happen yet again?"

One possibility is that the UK Border Agency failed to serve papers on Mr Salah informing him he had been excluded. He may also have used another name.

In 2008 Mr Salah was charged with incitement to violence and racism by a Jerusalem court over a speech in which he invoked what is known as the "blood libel" - a notorious anti-Semitic slur.

He was said to have accused Jewish people of using children's blood to bake bread. Afterwards, the 1,000-strong crowd rioted. Mr Salah was released from prison in 2005 after serving two years for raising millions of pounds for Palestinian terror group Hamas.

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