Leicester and Luton talks by Islamist hate cleric cancelled after GB News investigation

Abbasi’s upcoming talk in central Leicester on June 25 has also been cancelled, Leicestershire Police confirmed in a statement to GB News this afternoon.

A force spokesperson said: “We understand that the visit is no longer taking place.”

The latest cancellations come after Abbasi’s event in Newham, east London was called off on Thursday night after GB News shared details of his history of extremism and violent rhetoric.

The radical hate cleric has previously praised the 9/11 terrorists as “brave lions” and lauded the evil mastermind of the attacks Osama bin Laden.

Abbasi has also said that those who insult the prophet Muhammed and Ahmadi Muslims, a persecuted Islamic minority, should have their heads “chopped off.”

Wasiq Wasiq, an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “Abbasi’s events in Luton and Leicester have rightly been cancelled after a GB News investigation.

“However, those that have booked this cleric must have known what his views were. Either that, or there is a blind spot in their due diligence.”

He added: “This raises major questions for the Home Office, who not only have a duty to remove this individual, but also to ensure that organisers do not harbour or are sympathetic to these hateful views.

“While public events have been cancelled, Abbasi could still be invited to private and underground events to espouse hateful and extremist content.”

A British-Bangladeshi who has been tracking the situation told GB News that while it was positive that events had been cancelled, they feared that Abbasi and his supporters will not go underground and host events out of public scrutiny.

They said: “I am worried about the non publicised events that the organisers might be planning. The British authorities and media will have no information or control to prohibit any danger to our British society.”

Charlotte Littlewood, a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “A man who has called for violence against Hindus, Jews and Ahmadiyyas is more than a threat to social cohesion, he is a threat to national security.

"It is great that the events in Newham, Luton and Leicester were cancelled. If there is one city that does not need to see more violent anti-Hindu hate it is Leicester. This man must be deported.”

She added: “The Home Office needs to do some serious reflection on the capabilities of its team in identifying risk persons and on its priorities when it comes to managing threats to national security and social cohesion.

"At present Hindus feel under attack with no one coming to their defence - a recipe for reciprocal radicalisation.”