A senior British judge who overturned a 15-year ban on U.S. black activist Louis Farrakhan entering Britain said Monday the government had failed to prove such a visit would fuel racial tensions.
Judge Michael Turner, giving reasons for his decision in July, said former Home Secretary Jack Straw had not provided evidence of the risk that a visit by the Chicago-based head of the Nation of Islam would endanger community relations.
``It is simply not made out, as it must be if the Home Secretary is to be successful in this case, that there was more than a nominal risk that community relations would be likely to be endangered,'' Turner said in a 36-page written decision.
Farrakhan has been excluded from Britain since 1986 on the basis of fears his past bitter words for Jews, whites, Roman Catholics, women and homosexuals could stir racial tension.
Farrakhan once called Judaism a ``gutter religion'' and said Adolf Hitler was a ``wickedly great man.''
Straw reiterated the ban last November, saying Middle East tensions meant a visit would be ``an unwelcome and significant threat to community relations'' and threaten public order.
Turner said Farrakhan's pronouncements on relations between Jews and Black Muslims had been directed mainly at inequality, and that he had endeavored to follow a path of reconciliation.
The judge stressed that his decision was not to be taken as meaning he considered it ``a good thing'' for Farrakhan to be admitted to Britain but merely that the ban should be ended.
The ruling does not immediately open the doors for a visit.
A spokesman for current Home Secretary David Blunkett said the government will seek leave from Turner to appeal. If he does not do so, the government can apply to a higher court.
Lord Janner, President of the Interparliamentary Council Against Anti-Semitism, said the government should fight to keep Farrakhan out of Britain.
``The government should appeal immediately. At this time we should be looking for goodwill and should not allow into the country a man who has so effectively sown the seeds of ill will,'' he said.