No haters allowed: Britain's new 'least wanted' list includes Michael Savage and Fred Phelps

LONDON – Question: What new club includes holocaust deniers, Islamic extremists, a homophobic Kansas pastor, and conservative US talk show host Michael Savage?

Answer: all are individuals on a newly published 'Least Wanted' list of 16 people recently barred from entering the United Kingdom for fostering hatred or extremism.

Britain's government has been using new powers since 2005 to ban prospective visitors but is only now "naming and shaming" the targets – a decision it says was motivated so others could better understand the type of behavior it would not tolerate. The US also keeps a list of those not welcome in the country – for several years, the list included the singer Yusuf Islam, previously known as Cat Stevens (click here for more coverage).

Six out of 22 foreigners deemed 'persona non grata' by the UK since October have been kept secret. From the US, the 16 names include Michael Savage, a radio talk show host who was fired from hosting a regular show on MSNBC after telling a caller he should "get AIDS and die," as well as Stephen Donald Black, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who set up a racist website.

Other Americans on the list include Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. and his daughter, Shirley. The pastor, from the Westboro Baptist Church, is known for picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, claiming their deaths are divine punishment for society's tolerance of homosexuality.

Elsewhere on the list is Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky, and two Russian neo-nazis, Artur Ryno and Ravel Skachevsky.

Half of the 16 unwelcome visitors are from Muslim backgrounds, such as the preacher Abdullah Qadri al-Ahdal, the cleric and Palestinian parliament member Yunis al-Astal, the Kashmiri rebel leader Nasr Javed, and the Hezbollah militant Samir Kuntar, who was released from an Israeli prison after spending three decades in prison for his part in a deadly raid on Israel.

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