LONDON - The British government went to court Tuesday to maintain a ban on controversial U.S. Muslim black activist Louis Farrakhan entering the country, claiming a visit could stir up racial tension.
Farrakhan, head of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, was banned in 1986 because Britain said he had expressed views that were racist and anti-Semitic.
But last July, the ban was overturned in London's High Court which ruled that Britain had failed to prove that a visit by 68-year-old Farrakhan, who joined the Nation of Islam in the 1950s when it was led by Malcolm X, would be a risk.
Despite the court's July ruling, the ban has remained in place pending the government appeal.
The court said then there had been a complete lack of evidence to show there was racial, religious or ethnic tension between the Black Muslim and Jewish communities in Britain to justify continuing the ban.
Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett, who said he had been "frankly astonished" by July's ruling, launched an appeal against the verdict.
"The judge was wrong to interfere with the secretary of state's judgement as to what was conducive to the public good in this case," Monica Carrs-Frisk, the lawyer representing the Home Office told London's Court of Appeal Tuesday.
"He (Blunkett) was entitled to conclude Mr. Farrakhan was well-known for expressing anti-Semitic and racially divisive views. Particularly at a time of political unrest in the Middle East, to allow such a person into the country would pose a significant threat to community and public order."
Lawyers for Farrakhan, who once called Judaism a "gutter religion" and said Adolf Hitler was a "wickedly great man," argued in court last year that he had "moved on" and was now "an extremely prominent spiritual, religious and social leader."
Farrakhan's solicitor Sadiq Khan said Tuesday the government should allow the people of Britain to think for themselves.