A hate preacher who claimed it was better to be a paedophile than miss prayers has been invited to speak in Britain, despite being barred from other European nations.
Mohamed Hoblos, an Islamic preacher from Australia, has been billed to address events across England in the week beginning Feb 23 despite his incendiary rhetoric.
However, it is understood that the Home Office is drawing up plans to block the cleric from entry to the UK as a prospective threat to public safety.
It follows the creation of a taskforce last year by the Government to identify prominent extremists overseas who could pose a risk to public safety.
The taskforce was charged with ensuring hate preachers and extremists would automatically be referred to the Home Office for immigration action, including the cancellation or refusal of visas, should they attempt to travel to the UK.
In a widely circulated video, Hoblos told his Muslim followers that paedophiles, rapists and murderers who never miss a prayer are better, in the eyes of Allah, than good citizens who only miss one.
Hoblos has been banned from entering all Schengen zone nations and was recently turned away from Germany and then Holland by their respective border forces.
Senior Tories backed Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, in blocking the preacher. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Freedom of speech does not walk hand-in-hand with freedom for extremist Islamist clerics to come to this country and further their attempts to undermine our society.
“This TikTok ‘cleric’ has used his platform to spread hatred of Western values, and has rightly been barred from other countries. It’s quite clearly basic common sense he’s issued a lifetime ban from entering the UK, we’re better off without him.
“The Home Secretary must block his entry at once. Saying missing prayers is more serious than being a paedophile is sick – especially given the horrific rape gang scandal. People expressing these vile views should not be allowed into the UK.”
Hoblos has been invited to address an event organised by Masjid Maryam, a community project, in Middlesbrough on Feb 23 and similar platforms at five other cities around the UK including London, Birmingham and Manchester over that week.
A YouTube video from 2017 shows him stressing the importance of prayer – known as Salah – in a two-minute speech. He asks his followers if someone who sells drugs, murders someone and rapes a child is “good or bad”.
“This person, one person who commits all these sins on a daily basis – but he prays – is better in the eyes of Allah than the one who doesn’t commit any of these sins, but doesn’t pray,” he says.
“So you and your brother say: ‘Yeah, I’m a good guy’ – habibi (my friend), go and pack that up because it’s not going to work on the day of judgment.
“Any person who misses one Salah (prayer) for no reason – you are worse than a murderer, you are worse than a rapist, you are worse than a terrorist, you are worse than a paedophile in the eyes of Allah.”
Hoblos tells his followers to understand his teaching as “fact” and something which should be “understood very clearly”. He also tells the congregation that all sin is still bad and should never be accepted. Hoblos boasts a large social media presence and has more than 50,000 Facebook followers.
Lord Houchen, the mayor of Tees Valley, wrote to Ms Cooper expressing his “deep concern”. He said: “I am calling on you, as Home Secretary, to intervene as a matter of urgency and ensure that Mohamed Hoblos is prevented from entering the UK.
“There is no place for hate or extremism in our region and I strongly urge you to take decisive action to stop this event from taking place.”
