Board of Deputies welcomes ban on US anti-Islamist activist

Ms Geller may have expressed views which “foment or justify terrorist violence” or “foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK”, the letter said.

The JC understands the Home Office had been considering whether to ban Ms Geller since before the Woolwich attack took place.

After posting the Home Office letter on her blog, Ms Geller wrote: “In not allowing us into the country solely because of our true and accurate statements about Islam, the British government is behaving like a de facto Islamic state. The nation that gave the world the Magna Carta is dead.”

She was due to be joined in London by Robert Spencer, an American author who runs a “Jihad Watch” website, and Anders Gravers, the Danish leader of the Stop the Islamisation of Europe group. They were also banned.

Board of Deputies vice-president Jonathan Arkush had said Ms Geller and Mr Spencer’s presence would be “deeply unhelpful to community relations”.

Following Mrs May’s decision Mr Arkush said: “The Board stands resolutely opposed to extremism from wherever it comes. It rejects messages of hatred and communal division whether they are uttered by Islamist hardliners or those who profess hostility to the religion of Islam.

“Inflammatory events and statements serve only to give encouragement to extreme elements on all sides. Violence and hatred must be met by cool thinking and the appropriate use of the law, not by pouring fuel on the flames of anger and intolerance.”

Responding to Mr Arkush’s comments, Ms Geller said the Board’s stance was “an enormously sad commentary on Jewish lay leadership, and worse, a stunning indictment of their culpability.

“It mimics the inadequate and ill-conceived political action of the Jewish councils in Germany in the late 1930s and 40s. We are not supposed to say such things, but it is true.”