United Kingdom Bans Anti-Semitic Comedian Who Invented ‘Quenelle’ Gesture

The United Kingdom has banned a controversial French comedian from entering the country because the comic has been convicted in France six times for anti-Semitic hate speech. Dieudonné M’bala M’bala had been planning to visit his friend, professional football (i.e. soccer) star Nicholas Anelka, who is facing a five-game suspension for using a gesture invented by the comic that is widely considered to be anti-Semitic.

M’bala M’bala, who is better known simply as Dieudonné, was once a popular comedian in France. In recent years, however, his audience has dwindled while his public notoriety has exploded, thanks to his outspoken advocacy of views he characterizes as “anti-Zionist,” but the French government has deemed to incite hatred of Jews.

The 48-year-old Dieudonné has also openly associated with the self-styled historian Robert Faurisson, a leading figure in the Holocaust denial movement. Dieudonné once invited Faurisson on stage during one of the comic’s performances, inviting his audience to applaud. He has also befriended several other French right-wing extremist leaders.

Last year, Dieudonné, who once described Holocaust remembrance observances as “memorial pornography,” made his debut as a film director, with a movie titled, The Anti-Semite. The film ridicules the idea that Jews were killed in gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

On December 28, French football star Nicholas Anelka, playing in the United Kingdom for the English Premier League team West Bromwich Albion celebrated a goal with a gesture known at the “quenelle,” invented and popularized by Dieudonné.

Sort of a reverse-Nazi salute made by extending one arm downward and touching the upper arm with the opposite hand, the gesture is meant to have an “up yours” meaning, but Dieudonné has used it in connection with what he says are his objections to Zionism.

The English Football Association bans any displays or language that is considered racist or anti-Semitic. Anelka now faces a five-match suspension for using the gesture, though no decision has been made yet.

Anelkas is fighting the suspension,claiming that the gesture is intended only as “anti-establishment,” not anti-Semitic. He made the gesture during the December 28 match as a show of support for Dieudonné, who is his friend, he said.

But when the comedian announced plans to travel across the English Channel to the United Kingdom in support of Anelka, United Kingdom Home Secretary Theresa May barred him from entry.

The United Kingdom allows the Home Secretary to ban anyone considered a threat to public safety.

Last year, the United Kingdom banned American anti-Islamic speaker Pamela Gellar from entering. Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps has also been banned, on the grounds that his extreme anti-gay views could jeopardize public order in the United Kingdom.