BICOM

Head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested in London on Tuesday night, having entered the UK in spite of an exclusion order against him. The Islamic Movement is an Islamist organisation among Israeli-Arabs, and its northern branch is its more radical wing. On Tuesday night Salah had given a lecture in Leicester and on Monday evening he addressed an audience at Conway Hall, London. Salah was invited today to speak at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event in Parliament, alongside three Labour MPs. 

Salah landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday and, due to errors, passed immigration checks. Home Secretary Theresa May took a decision last week to ban him from the country because of his extreme views, his encouragement of acts of violence and antisemitic remarks. The government came under criticism during parliamentary questions yesterday from Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, for failing to prevent a banned individual from entering the country. 


Salah is a well-known figure in Israel, where he has served jail time twice, in 2010 for assaulting a police officer and in 2003 for raising millions of pounds for Hamas and contacting an Iranian intelligence agent.