Rt Hon Theresa May MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear Home Secretary,
I note from the recent press your decision to arrest Sheikh Raed Salah for reasons that are yet unconfirmed. It has been reported that the decision to arrest Mr Salah followed an appeal by the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, Mike Freer, to yourself in the Commons that Salah be banned from Britain because of his "history of virulent anti-semitism". Mr Freer remarked, "I have been questioning the propriety of providing a platform to a speaker who reportedly peddles the conspiracy theories of Jewish involvement in the 9/11 plots."
I am not disputing your decision to arrest Mr Salah as I am not familiar with his views and had not heard of him prior to his arrest. However, I hope your judgement was made in good faith and that the evidence presented to you was sufficient enough to warrant the drastic steps the Home Office took to uphold public safety.
I am writing to bring to your attention a 3-day 'Rally and Prophecy Conference' by American Pastor John Hagee, to be held in Birmingham from 18 August 2011. Hagee is widely condemned by the liberal American Jewish community for his virulent anti-semitism, Islamophobia and homophobia. Although Hagee is a strong supporter of Israel, he does so not for the belief in the Jewish right to self-determination but for the purpose and belief of gathering world Jewry in Israel where they will eventually be slaughtered to bring about his Biblical interpretation of the End Times - and it is this belief that drives his lobbying for Israel.
As you are aware, in 2005 the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (AFR) published a working definition of anti-semitism. In it, the AFR defines anti-semitism as including:
Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion; Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions; and claiming Jews killed Jesus.See also Weird and Wacky Theology 3: Armageddon out of here
The following are clear examples of Hagee's anti-semitism as defined by the AFR:
1. In a 2006 book titled 'Jerusalem Countdown - A Prelude to War,' Hagee wrote that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God's way of forcing Jews to move to Israel. Hagee predicts, according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be killed in a future apocalyptic Mideast conflict.
Clearly not a man of patience, that same year at an event launching Christians United for Israel (CUFI) attended by several Republican members of the US Senate, Hagee declared, "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West...a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation...and [the] Second Coming of Christ."
2. In a 1996 book titled 'The Beginning of the End,' Hagee described the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as fulfillment of prophecy and suggested admiration for Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir. Imagining Amir's mindset as he prepared himself to kill Rabin, Hagee wrote, "Tonight, if God was good, an opportunity would show itself. No longer would Rabin be able to transfer Israeli lands to Palestinians. The damage he'd done in the West Bank and Gaza was enough. Israel had a divine right to the land, and to give it away was an act of treason against Israel and an abomination against God."
3. In a chapter titled 'Who Controls America,' from his 1997 book 'Day of Deception,' Hagee claimed, "The [US] Federal Reserve has never been audited, and yet it controls the value of money in this country... While most of the stockholders are members of the so-called Eastern Establishment, allegedly the four largest stockholders are not even Americans but members of the Rothschild family of Europe." Hagee then went on to claim, "God says in the book of Haggai, 'The silver is mine, and gold is mine.' He is not controlled by the Eastern Establishment, He's not controlled by the Rothschilds."
4. In a series of sermons delivered in 2003 titled 'Iraq the Final War,' Hagee stated, "[America's] economic destiny is controlled by the Federal Reserve system that is now headed by Alan Greenspan. Think about this. It is not a government institution. It is controlled by a group of Class A stockholders including the Rothschilds of Europe and the David Rockefellers of America."
5. In a 2006 interview on America's National Public Radio, Pastor Hagee depicted Jews as Christ killers. Responding to a question about the End Times, the Pastor stated, "Zechariah says in the 14th chapter 'and when they, the Jewish people, see him whom they have pierced' - and the word pierced there actually refers to his rib and side - 'when they see him whom they have pierced, they will weep as one weeps for his only son for a period of one week.'"
As a British Muslim I strongly support all efforts to tackle anti-semitism because I firmly believe that a society that cannot eliminate anti-semitism certainly cannot eliminate Islamophobia. It is for this reason that I urge you to deny Pastor John Hagee entry in to the UK.
I hope and trust you will apply your judgement fairly.
Name withheld
and John Hagee and Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred
