US pastor Steven Anderson still plans to preach in Dublin on May 26 despite his ban from entering the Schengen area of 26 countries and a petition which has over 12,000 signatures as of this afternoon.

Anderson’s furious sermons, which have been shared on social media sites, have seen him compared to Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. Among his countless despicable pronouncements, the petition provides links to how he proposed the extermination of LGBT+ people to “cure AIDS” and uploaded a video for his followers to explain why the 49 people murdered in the Pulse nightclub massacre “deserved to die in the shooting”.

He also believes that homosexual people are “sodomites who recruit through rape” and “recruit through molestation” and can never be “saved”. During one of his sermons, he preached, “The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers but not for homosexuals.” When questioned, he later doubled down on his preachings, saying, “I do hate homosexuals and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group, then that’s what we are.”

The petition also lists how Anderson is a Holocaust-denier, Islamophobe, stands against abortion rights and tells his followers that “women are to remain in the home”. His church believes that any form of birth control is a sin and likens the birth control pill to murder.

Anderson was also due to speak in Sweden and the Netherlands as part of this tour. Dutch justice and security secretary has now issued a ban on Anderson entering the Schengen area of Europe which included Sweden and the Netherlands.

Ireland is not part of the Schengen zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWK2rcX3mJM

In a video obtained by Storyful, Anderson said that despite this ban, he will still visit Ireland as he plans to fly directly to Dublin.

“So far so good on Dublin; it is still on,” he said. “These events are still going on; the soul-winning and the preaching are still going on. It’s just yours truly who won’t be there, except I am planning to be there in Ireland.

“I am planning to fly directly to Dublin. So, unless they ban me, I’m still going to be there in Dublin.”

He vowed that the event would continue even if he is banned from Ireland as he has alternative speakers lined up.

Details regarding the event have not been released, but in the video obtained by Storyful, Anderson tells followers to meet him at a McDonald’s restaurant near Dublin Airport, where they will then go to the real venue at “another restaurant”.

He has called on his followers from the UK to travel to Ireland to the event which he estimates 150 people will attend.

A Department of Justice spokesman told the Irish Times: “The Department does not comment on individual cases. When a person from a non-visa required state presents at immigration, a decision to grant entry is made by an immigration officer and is subject to the entry requirements of the Immigration Act 2004.”