Saudi Wahhabi cleric denied UK entry

A senior Saudi Wahhabi cleric has been barred from traveling to the UK as he was about to leave for a speaking tour at British mosques.

Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, whose visa was seized before boarding the London-bound plane in Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airporton Wednesday, was expected to give lectures in Whitechapel and in Wembley.

Al-Kalbani had previously made divisive comments against Shia Muslims.

The circumstances upon which al-Kalbani was refused entry into UK were not immediately known, but he had previously been allowed into the country and in 2008 he was a guest of the then leader of Tower Hamlets council in east London, Lutfur Rahman, according to media reports.

“I was stopped at the door of the plane and told that the authorities received a message from the British Embassy saying that I was not allowed to enter Britain,” Arab News website quoted al-Kalbani as saying.

“I don’t really know why they denied me entry. I was in Britain about four years ago and other countries,” he added. A-Kalbani said he visited the US in the mid-1990s.

He added that had received his visa from the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia in October, just two weeks after submitting his application.