Milo Yiannopoulos's comments about the Christchurch shootings got him barred from entering Australia

Milo Yiannopoulos.
(Image credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Australia has barred Milo Yiannopoulos from entering the country following the far right commentator's anti-Islam comments after Friday's mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, which were carried out by a racist, anti-immigrant gunman against Muslims worshiping in two different mosques.

Al Jazeera reported that on Friday Yiannopoulos posted on Facebook that attacks like the one in Christchurch happen because "the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures."

The Australian government was quick to respond on Saturday — immigration minister David Coleman called the former Breitbart editor's comments "appalling" and said they "foment hatred and division." He went to say that Yiannopoulos would not be allowed into the country and that Australia was blocking his visa — which was personally approved by Coleman just last week — on character grounds.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Yiannopoulos, who has consistently made disparaging comments against Muslims, immigrants, and the media in the past, again posted on Facebook (he has been banned from Twitter) following Australia's decision.

"I criticized the establishment for pandering to Islamic fundamentalism," he wrote. "So Australia banned me again."

Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.