The career of Milo Yiannopoulos took another hit on Saturday when the Australian government canceled a visa it had granted just a week ago to the heavily indebted right-wing troll for a speaking tour scheduled later this year.
Australia banned Yiannopoulos over comments he made on Facebook about the Islamophobic terrorist attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 people and left 50 others injured during Friday prayers, including children.
In a Facebook post, Yiannopoulos blamed the radicalism behind the attack, which was carried out by a 28-year-old racist white Australian, on progressives. He called Islam a “barbaric, alien religious” culture.
Yiannopoulos also defended right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who the Christchurch terrorist named in an 87-page “manifesto” he posted online before carrying out the attacks.
“Whatever you think about her, Candace Owens had nothing to do with what happened in New Zealand. People aren’t radicalized by their own side. They get pushed to the far-Right BY THE LEFT, not by others on the Right,” Yiannopoulos wrote.
He also said he had spent his “entire career denouncing political violence.” But he added: “Attacks like this happen because the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist Leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures. Not when someone dares to point it out.”
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs already had planned to deny Yiannopoulos a visa, citing violent protests during a previous speaking tour in 2017 and earlier Islamophobic comments, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. But after criticism from conservative media and Liberal Party MPs, Immigration Minister David Coleman intervened and personally approved the visa, the newspaper said.
But Coleman quickly reversed course following Yiannopoulos’ latest comments, which he called “appalling.” The minister called the Christchurch attack “an act of pure evil” against “Muslims peacefully practicing their religion,” according to The Guardian, and added that Yiannopoulos’ statements would “foment hatred and division.”
Yiannopoulos, forever the self-obsessed troll, seized on the announcement to play the victim in even more statements on Facebook.
“I explicitly denounced violence. I said that we on the Right are constantly disavowing racists. I pointed out the inconvenient fact that it is Leftists committing the majority of political violence. And I criticized the establishment for pandering to Islamic fundamentalism. So Australia banned me again,” he whined.
Things haven’t been going too well for the former Breitbart editor, who reportedly is at least $2 million in debt. Last December, an attempt at crowdfunding ended with Patreon booting Yiannopoulos from the website. Earlier this month, he auctioned off a giant picture of himself, saying he was moving and the portrait wouldn’t “survive the truck journey.”
In addition to Yiannopoulos, Australia also previously banned Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and British Holocaust denier David Icke.
Update, Saturday, 4:38 p.m.: This post has been updated with a new statement by New Zealand’s police noting that the death toll now stands at 50, while 50 others were injured.