US preacher who praised the Pulse nightclub shooter banned from Ireland
Steven Anderson has become the first person to be banned from Ireland in 20 years
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A US preacher who praised the Pulse nightclub shooter has become the first person to be banned from Ireland in 20 years.
Steven Anderson, who runs the Faithful World Baptist Church and openly expresses anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ views, was set to travel to Dublin on May 26 to preach.
However, an only petition was set up calling for the Arizona preacher to be banned from Ireland and received more than 14,000 signatures.
Now on May 10, Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan signed an exclusion order for Anderson with immediate effect under the Immigration Act 1999, the BBC reported.
This marks the first time an exclusion order has been granted since the act was set up 20 years ago.
Flanagan said he signed the order ‘under my executive powers in the interests of public policy’.
Anderson – who is also banned from the UK – previously called for the death of Barack Obama and outrageously praised the gunman who killed 49 people in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida back in 2016.