Ireland Bans US Hate Pastor, First Ban Under 1999 Act

The Irish Times reports:

An American preacher with extreme anti-gay and anti-Semitic views has become the first person ever banned from Ireland by exclusion powers dating from 1999.

Steven L Anderson, a Baptist pastor based in Arizona, came to public prominence in 2009 when telling his congregation he had prayed for the death of then president Barack Obama and also praised the gunman who killed 49 people in an attack on a gay club in Florida in 2016.

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan signed the exclusion on Sunday in respect of Pastor Steven L Anderson with immediate effect under the Immigration Act 1999. The department later confirmed it was the first time an exclusion order had been effected in the 20 years since it was enacted.

Earlier this month Anderson was also banned from most of Europe. Last year he was banned from Jamaica and was ejected from South Africa.