An Islamic preacher who once cited a Nazi comparison of Jews to “fleas” is to speak at a mosque in Bradford this weekend.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, was urged on Friday to ban the South African cleric Shaykh Ebrahim Bham from entering the UK to speak at the conference being held on Sunday.
Mr Bham used his first Friday sermon after the October 7 attack to hail the “courage” of the attackers and how they had struck “fear in the hearts” of the Israelis.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “This vile Islamist preacher should be banned from entering the UK – end of. The Home Secretary must revoke his visa immediately.”
Alex Hearn, of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: “Bham’s support for banned terrorist groups, violence, racism and homophobia should not be welcome, and we call on Yvette Cooper to bar his entry to Britain.”
Lord Walney, the former Government adviser on political violence, said he must be barred because of his praise for the proscribed terror group Hamas. “Extremist rhetoric directly harms community cohesion and has no place in the UK,” he said.
The Home Office declined to comment on an individual case but said: “We’re clear there is absolutely no place in our society for the vile preaching of anti-Semitism, and our law enforcement partners are always ready to take the strongest possible action against anyone who breaks our laws and incites hatred in our communities.”
Recordings of Mr Bham’s sermons previously hosted on the website of South Africa’s Council of Muslim Theologians, of which he is secretary general, reveal him talking about Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist of the Nazi party.
In one he says: “Goebbel [sic] was a very famous minister of the Nazis, and he tried to justify the killing of the Jews. Now as far as we are concerned, we do not need to feel apologetic because it was not done by Muslims.
“The Muslims did not do it, but they had to suffer the consequences of the Holocaust. Because Europe, because of its guilt, had to shed its Jews. And they couldn’t put them in Europe, they put them in Palestine at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian Muslim people.”
Quoting Goebbels, he adds: “One day, he said that ‘People tell me that Jews are human beings. Yes, I know they are human beings. Just as fleas are also animals. Just as fleas are also animals, they are also part of human beings like that’.
“Using that example, the psyche of the whole people [Jews] seems to be to mete out the very same treatment to others the way it was meted out toward them.”
‘Fear in the hearts of the occupiers’
In a sermon after the October 7 attack, he described it as “amazing”.
Mr Bham said: “They took the courage and they resisted, and they went into Israel. And of course, they attacked Israel.
“First time there has been fear in the hearts of the occupiers. They put fear in the hearts of the occupiers. Over 1000 people have died, and many of them soldiers.”
He defended their right to fight, saying: “Palestinians are entitled to defend themselves, and defending themselves is part of Islam. Allah has given you the right to fight if you are oppressed.
“When they fall and they die, they attain martyrdom, brothers, they are fighting on our behalf.”
Although he says he opposes the terrorists of Islamic State, Mr Bham has previously defended jihad and the caliphate. He has called jihad “a tower in the castle of Islam” and suggested the caliphate is something to which Muslims should aspire.
He has described sexual equality as “absurd”, called homosexuality “wrong” and has defended jihad as “part and parcel” of Islamic teaching.