Anti-abortion homophobe who will not travel to Europe … …

The Irish government has banned US preacher Steven Anderson from entering the country because of his anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks, the country's Justice and Home Affairs Ministry said. The ban is in addition to the one announced in early May in Holland, a signatory of the Schengen area, which extended the ban in 26 European countries to the status of pastor homophobic, anti-abortion and denial, leader of the Baptist Church of the True Word, based in Arizona.

The Irish Minister of Justice and the Interior, Christian Democrat Charlie Flanagan, vetoed Anderson's presence by invoking the 1999 Immigration Act, a standard to which no previous government had resorted to taking a similar measure in twenty years of validity.

The minister told the Irish Independent newspaper that he had signed the ministerial order last Friday "because it restores political interest".

Anderson is the leader of the Faithful Word Baptist Church, based in the city of Tempe, Arizona, and was scheduled to arrive in Dublin on May 26, as he himself announced in a video posted on his website. website.

Until last week, over 14,000 people had signed an application for an access ban, following a call by the so-called Irish Liberal Church, which defends the rights of the community LGBTI in this country.

On May 1, the Netherlands had announced that they had taken measures to prevent the access of Anderson, ban extended to the 26 countries of the Schengen area. Anderson, had prayed in 2009 for the death of former US President Barack Obama because of his favorable beliefs in the choice. The pastor was due to deliver a sermon in Amsterdam on May 23, said Dutch Secretary of State Mark Harbers. The secretary of state warned that if Anderson went to the Netherlands, despite the ban on traveling in the Schengen area, "this would be considered a threat to public order" .

Since Ireland is not part of the Schengen area, Anderson planned to go directly to Dublin to go to this city with some 150 followers. The preacher, father of ten children, urged his followers to wait in a reputable fast food located near Dublin Airport, where they would later settle in a secret place to participate to a religious event. In November 2015, he described the victims of the Bataclan bombing in Paris as "faithful of the devil". And after the mbadacre at a gay club in Orlando in 2016, he said there were "fewer than 50 pedophiles in the world".