Unindicted co-conspirator in 1993 World Trade Centre bombing deported to Canada

Understand why not welcome in many places:

Mr. Philips did not respond to requests for comment. But in an “official statement” on Facebook, he wrote that, “I have never had any links nor have I ever been accused of having links to any terrorist group.”

He said there was nothing to the U.S. allegations against him. “In normal language, ‘unindicted’ simply means ‘no charges have been filed against me due to lack of evidence,’ and ‘co-conspirator’ means ‘guilty by association,’ that someone who the authorities arrested had my name in their telephone book, or they were seen shaking hands with me, or they prayed next to me in a mosque, etc…”

He vowed to clear his name and return to the Philippines. “In banning and demonizing us, they have created a vacuum of information which continues to be exploited and filled by extremist elements who easily recruit youthful impressionable followers with emotional messages to their savage, violent and merciless unIslamic methodologies and ideologies.”

Unindicted co-conspirator in 1993 World Trade Centre bombing deported to Canada

From the Globe, not a model of integration:

However, Mr. Philips is seen with suspicion by authorities because he advocates a staunchly orthodox, literal form of Islam.

“If Salafi means that you’re a traditionalist that follows the scripture according to the early traditions, then yeah. I’m not a modernist. I’m not a person who makes his own individual interpretations according to the times,” he said.

He has in the past been accused of inciting hatred for saying that, under sharia law, homosexuality is punishable by death. And he believes Muslims owe allegiance to their religion first, before their country. “My message … really is for Muslims to be Muslims first, and then nationalist after, whatever their nationality is. So you’re a Muslim first and you are a Canadian second. You’re a Muslim first and an American second,” he said.

“This is looked at as some kind of fifth-column movement; we’re creating a group of people whose first allegiance is not to their country.”

Controversial imam Bilal Philips says banning him won’t stop his message