Banned cleric begs UK: Save me
Friday, July 21, 2006; Posted: 5:23 a.m. EDT (09:23 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A hard-line Muslim cleric barred from Britain for glorifying violence said on Friday he tried to get on board a British warship to flee Beirut but was turned back.
"The answer was, 'unless you have a British passport you are not entitled to come on board'," Omar Bakri told Sky News on Friday.
Syrian-born Bakri left Britain for Lebanon last August, saying he was going on holiday, after British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to silence Islamists glorifying violence.
Bakri, who had lived in Britain for 20 years, said he had shown his British driving licence and his cancelled British passport.
"I know myself I am not welcome in the UK ... but I have the right like everyone else to safety," he said. "It is better to try and fail."
Britain barred him from returning to the country as part of a government crackdown on Islamic preachers who it says inspires suicide bombers like those who attacked London's transport system last year, killing 52 people.
The British Home Office said he had been barred because his presence was "not conducive to the public good."
In an interview with Reuters in Beirut last August, the bearded cleric said he had no intention of returning to Britain because of the way Muslims there were being treated.
