Michael Savage Banned In Britain

Allahpundit is right, this is a bizarre story. Michael Savage, a controversial talk show host has been lumped in with Jihadists, neo-Nazis, a child-killing savage from Hezbollah, and  Fred Phelps, and banned from entering the United Kingdom.

Not surprisingly, Savage is suing:

Savage told The Chronicle that being included in such a crowd is no laughing matter — and he is now preparing legal action against Smith, he said.

“This lunatic … is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing people in Russia, she’s putting me in a league with Hamas murderers who kill Jews on busses,” he said. “I have never advocated violence … I’ve been on the air 15 years. My views may be inflammatory, but they’re not violent in any way.”

He said he has been defamed and endangered by the British government action. “She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,” he said. “Does she not think people might hunt me down?”

Savage said he has had no contact with the British government or with Smith’s office and has no idea how he ended up on the British Home secretary’s list.

Unlike Allah, I have listened to Michael Savage from time to time on the car radio when I’m out driving around. I have no idea why he’s on the list, either. He’s certainly controversial, frequently emotional, boastful, hyperbolic, often wrong, and almost always obnoxious. But he’s not violent, and doesn’t promote violence.

He delights in insulting individuals on both the left and the right, especially those who compete with him  in talk radio. That has made him “persona non grata” amongst conservative talkers like Mark Levin, who seemed to be referencing Savage’s predicament on his radio show, tonight:

It’s really too bad Savage has made  enemies of people who should be his allies in the  battle against politically correct fascism.

More at FrontPageMagazine:

As a political gesture, the British blacklist is in equal parts ridiculous and dangerous. Whatever one’s views of Savage’s on-air antics – and he has long since apologized to the gay community for his most outrageous remark, to a caller, that he should “get AIDS and die” – by no means does he deserve to be grouped with child killers, mass-murdering terrorists, and racists. No less absurd is the premise that the genuine extremists on the list will somehow be “shamed” by their mention. More likely, previously obscure terror leaders like Nasr Javed will savor their moment of international infamy and the attendant boost to their reputation.

The more worrying aspect of the official blacklist is the explicit message that British authorities will no longer tolerate opinions with which they disagree. How else to explain the inclusion of Savage, who fits none of the definitions of violent extremism that the Home Office cites as grounds for a ban, namely support for or incitement of terrorism and criminal activity? It is true that Savage has sometimes said inflammatory things, a point he readily concedes, but the fact that he is now banned from Britain invites the uncomfortable suspicion that anyone with an opinion uncongenial to the Home Office is no longer welcome in the country.

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