A Baptist pastor notorious for his antisemitic and homophobic views has become the first person ever to be banned from entering Ireland. Steven L Anderson, who is based in Arizona and runs the Faithful Word Baptist church, has previously described Jews as “anti-Christs” and produced videos promoting denial of the Holocaust. He also found notoriety after admitting he prayed for the death of former US President Barack Obama and praised the gunman who killed 49 people in a shooting at a Florida gay club in 2016. The pastor had been due to visit Dublin to deliver a sermon on May 26, but on Sunday Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan signed an order excluding him from the Republic of Ireland. Section 4 of the country's Immigration Act allows the minister to sign an exclusion order if he “considers it necessary in the interest of national security or public policy”. “I have signed the exclusion order under my executive powers in the interests of public policy,” Mr Flanagan told the Irish Times. Steven Anderson was deported from Botswana in 2016 (Photo: Getty Images) Mr Anderson is an active preacher on YouTube and has published videos with titles including “How to Hate a Jew” and “No Such Thing as ‘ANTI-SEMITIC’”. Mr Anderson is already banned from travelling to several other countries, including the UK. In 2016 he was deported from Botswana as a “prohibited immigrant” after telling a radio station in the country that gay people should be killed.<doc-sep>The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has called on the Minister for Justice to explain why he used executive powers to exclude a US pastor from visiting Ireland. Charlie Flanagan signed an executive order banning Steven Anderson from travelling here. The pastor, from Arizona in the United States, had planned to host a preaching event at an unknown location in Dublin on 26 May. He is the first person to be excluded from Ireland in the 20 years since the exclusion power came into law. Liam Herrick, Executive Director at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said this seems to be the exercise of a very exceptional power, and that we need more information about how this decision was made. "The law requires that a decision of this type must be necessary and must be in furtherance of public policy," he said. "The standard of necessary is a very high threshold, so we need to know why this was necessary or the only way of dealing with this particular difficulty, and we also need to know what is the public policy that requires this step." "Because this decision affects fundamental rights in such an important way, we believe there's a duty to give reasons in this case too". He said there is a wider question about what we and what this individual or his organisation are trying to achieve. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences "Sometimes being banned serves their political ends. Sometimes confronting hate speech and messaging of this type directly, protesting and ridiculing what's being said can actually be more effective in the longer term," he said. "The use of exceptional legal powers needs to be very tightly defined and tightly explained and I think we need more information from the Minister on this". Mr Herrick said that there are weaknesses in other areas of our laws that would probably be a more effective and appropriate way to deal with these issues. "Ultimately, incitement and public order offences coming from speech are policing matters that are appropriately dealt with by our police. We haven't felt the recourse to take exceptional steps up to now, so we have to question why it is necessary on this occasion," he said. A spokesperson for the minister said he would not be commenting further, other than to confirm that he signed the order to exclude Mr Anderson "with immediate effect in the interest of public policy". LGBT Ireland is one of the groups involved in setting up a petition over Mr Anderson's planned visit, which got 25,000 signatures. It said Mr Anderson has a "track record in spreading very dangerous and distressing hate speech" and it set up the petition because it "felt it was important call that out and make a stand". CEO of LGBT Ireland Paula Fagan said they were relieved by Mr Flanagan's decision, but has called for new legislation around hate speech and hate crimes in Ireland. "Unfortunately we don't have very effective hate speech legislation in Ireland, and we don’t have any legislation or any law in Ireland around hate crime," she said. "In the absence of those, we called for this ban, but going forward we'd like to see very robust legislation in place so people know what the parameters are around what people can say and what is unacceptable and dangerous in terms of speech". She said the group is working with the Department of Justice on an LGBT inclusion strategy.<doc-sep>Mr Anderson has previously called for the death of former US President Barack Obama and praised the gunman who killed 49 people in an attack on a gay night club in Florida in 2016.<doc-sep>(CNN) Ireland has banned a US preacher known for anti-gay and anti-Semitic views, using a 20-year-old legal power for the first time. Steven Anderson, who runs Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, was due to preach in Dublin on May 26, according to his website. However his scheduled appearance sparked controversy and an online petition calling for a ban gathered 14,150 signatures. Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan barred Anderson from the country using an exclusion order under the Immigration Act 1999 on May 10. "I have signed the exclusion order under my executive powers in the interests of public policy," said Flanagan in a statement. Read More<doc-sep>
A controversial pastor from the United States has been barred from visiting Ireland due to the strong hate-filled language he uses in his sermons, BBC News reports. Arizona Pastor Steven Anderson said he was supposed to preach in Dublin on May 26. However, an online petition calling for Anderson to be banned from the country received 14,000 signatures. According to BBC News, Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan signed an exclusion order for Anderson which went into effect on May 10. "Don't expect anything contemporary or liberal," the website for Anderson's Faithful World Baptist Church reads. Paul Wittenberger In a statement to BBC News, Flanagan said he had signed the order "under my executive powers in the interests of public policy." BBC News notes that this marks the first time an exclusion has been granted under Ireland's Immigration Act 1999. CBS News has reached out to Flanagan for comment and is awaiting response. Anderson is considered the leader of an "anti-LGBT hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He once called for the death of President Obama, BBC News reports. He also praised the Pulse Nightclub gunman who killed 49 people in an attack in 2016. He currently preaches at Faithful World Baptist church in Tempe, Arizona. "Don't expect anything contemporary or liberal," the church's website reads. "We are an old-fashioned, independent, fundamental, King James Bible only, soul-winning Baptist church." According to BBC News, Anderson has been barred from setting foot in multiple countries, including South Africa, Jamaica, and the U.K. Controversial US Pastor Steven Anderson reacts as he leaves the Botswana Department of immigration after being issued a deportation order by Botswana authorities, on September 20, 2016, in Gaborone. Stringer / AFP/Getty Images In 2016, Anderson was deported from Botswana, just one week after South Africa barred him, BBC News reports. "We don't want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country," Botswana's President Ian Khama said at the time. After being arrested, the pastor claimed he was leaving the country voluntarily.