{"id":17976,"date":"2026-04-20T15:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17976\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T15:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:11:20","slug":"muslim-council-of-britain-blasts-uk-over-valentina-gomez-visa-row-5pillars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17976\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Council of Britain blasts UK over Valentina Gomez visa row \u2013 5Pillars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-thumbnail-article-_20260419_121141_0000-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of thumbnail article _20260419_121141_0000\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Muslim Council of Britain has formally <a href=\"https:\/\/mcb.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026.04.17-Letter-to-HS-re-Gomez.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">written<\/a> to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, expressing \u201cdeep concern\u201d over the decision to grant American far-right figure Valentina Gomez entry into the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The MCB says the move exposes glaring inconsistency in how the Home Office applies its own rules.<\/p>\n<p>Others have previously been refused entry for inflammatory rhetoric aimed at different faith groups, yet Gomez has been waved straight through.<\/p>\n<p>The MCB is clear this is not a straightforward free speech issue. The organisation acknowledges that freedom of expression is a core British value and that the legal bar for religious hatred offences is deliberately high.<\/p>\n<p>However, it states that \u201cthat protection is not absolute, particularly where speech moves into calls for violence, dehumanising group-targeted language, or the undermining of public authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hhugs.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"huggs-feb-2026 (1)\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/huggs-feb-2026-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\"   style=\"opacity: 1 !important;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What Gomez actually said<\/p>\n<p>The MCB\u2019s alarm centres on a speech Gomez delivered at the September 2025 \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d rally alongside Tommy Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for regular updates straight to your inbox<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!<\/p>\n<p>According to the MCB\u2019s letter, she told the crowd \u201cyou either fight for this nation,\u201d warned of \u201crapist Muslims\u201d \u201ctaking over\u201d, and demanded Muslims be \u201csent back to their Sharia nations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/5pillarsuk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot_20260419_120710_X.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-76557 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot_20260419_120710_X-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\"  \/><\/a>Screenshot from Gomez\u2019s speech at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London.<\/p>\n<p>She then turned directly to police officers present, declaring: \u201cI need you to stop following orders because you know you are being told to look the other way while your country is being raped into submission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The MCB warns that those remarks \u201cmay engage existing legislation relating to the stirring up of religious hatred, the encouragement or incitement of violence, and public order offences concerning harassment, alarm or distress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These are serious legal thresholds, and the MCB is asking why they did not form part of the entry decision.<\/p>\n<p>Broader implications<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the legal questions, the MCB warns of a broader cost to public confidence. The letter states that granting Gomez a UK platform \u201csends a troubling message about the selective application of Home Office standards\u201d and \u201crisks undermining the safety of all communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organisation says this damages confidence in the government\u2019s willingness to protect people from incitement, particularly among Muslim communities already concerned about rising hostility.<\/p>\n<p>The MCB is urging the Home Secretary to \u201cclarify how this decision is consistent with existing standards and to ensure that these standards are applied fairly and without bias across all communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ask is simple: one consistent standard, applied equally regardless of which community is targeted.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/5pillarsuk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/telegram-2.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-50624 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/telegram-2-300x38.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"38\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Muslim Council of Britain has formally written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, expressing \u201cdeep concern\u201d over the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3256,3257,13,1766,3764,7402,8292,8293],"class_list":{"0":"post-17976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-5-pillars","9":"tag-5pillars","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-home-office","12":"tag-islamophobia","13":"tag-muslim-council-of-britain","14":"tag-uk-visa-row","15":"tag-valentina-gomez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116437679017623020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}