Dr Zakir Naik

London, June 18: A radical Indian preacher who claimed that “every Muslim should be a terrorist” has been banned from coming to Britain, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

In her first major test of being tough on extremism, Theresa May, the new home secretary, said she was banning Dr Zakir Naik from entering the UK. Dr Naik, a 44-year-old Indian preacher, had been supposed to give a series of lectures at arenas in Wembley Arena and Sheffield.

The home secretary can exclude or deport an individual if she thinks that their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good. There had been speculation that Dr Naik would be allowed into the UK. However, May said she was excluding him because of the “numerous comments” he made were evidence of his “unacceptable behaviour”.

This behaviour applies to anyone who writes or publishes material which can “foment justify or glorify terrorist violence” or “seek to provoke others to terrorist acts”.

May told The Daily Telegraph: “I have excluded Dr Naik from the UK. Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behaviour.

“Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK.

“Exclusion powers are very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate on issues.”

Home office sources said Dr Naik had been filmed on a website making inflammatory comments such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist”.

He said: “When a robber sees a policeman he’s terrified. So for a robber, a policeman is a terrorist. So in this context, every Muslim should be a terrorist to the robber.”

Dr Naik has also been filmed saying: “There are many Jews who are good to Muslims, but as a whole … The Quran tells us, as a whole, they will be our staunchest enemy.”

In a web posting from 2006 he said: “Beware of Muslims saying Osama Bin Laden is right or wrong. I reject them … we don’t know.

“But if you ask my view, if given the truth, if he is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. I don’t know what he’s doing. I’m not in touch with him. I don’t know him personally. I read the newspaper.”

Dr Naik is a doctor by profession and is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation. He also owns the free-to-air Peace TV channel. Dr Naik’s public relations manager Maqbool Barwelkar said the statement attributed to the preacher about Osama bin Laden had been taken from a lecture Dr Naik gave in Singapore in 2006, and had been edited out of context.