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More than 5,000 people have signed a petition to stop a US hate preacher entering Ireland.

Steve Anderson, who once said gay people should be stoned to death, is set yo come to Dublin next month.

A campaign has been launched calling for the Government to ban the cleric’s trip over his extremist views.

It is believed Anderson could be coming here on May 26 to try and change people’s minds on last year’s abortion referendum.

One supporter of the petition said: “This man is a clear and present danger to the LGBT community worldwide. He advocates full-blown militancy and violence to the LGBT.

“He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preys on unsuspecting religious freedom supporters and will turn them toward violent gay-bashings.”

Another person posted: “We will not welcome or give a platform to hate speech. This man can incite hatred in others to take violent actions.

“We are a peace-loving country were all our citizens are entitled to equality.”

It is believed Anderson, from the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, will stage an event in Dublin but no location has yet been announced.

The cleric was banned from preaching his anti-gay teachings in South Africa in 2016 and the same year the UK government banned him from travelling through the country.

Ruairi McKiernan, the founder of youth website SpunOut, shared the

petition on Twitter and asked people to sign, saying: “He’s a Holocaust-denier who has proposed extermination of LGBT+ people.

“We rightly make a fuss when Islamic fundamentalists seek to radicalise people in Ireland & this should be no different.”

Anderson has become notorious for his anti-LGBT+ views around the world and once claimed gay people should be killed to stop the spread of AIDS.

In 2014, he said: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death.

“Their blood shall be upon them. That is the cure for AIDS.

One supporter of the petition said: “This man is a clear and present danger to the LGBT community worldwide. He advocates full-blown militancy and violence to the LGBT.

“He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preys on unsuspecting religious freedom supporters and will turn them toward violent gay-bashings.”

Another person posted: “We will not welcome or give a platform to hate speech. This man can incite hatred in others to take violent actions.

“It was right there in the Bible all along and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable – right there.”

Anderson also praised the Orlando nightclub massacre in June 2016, saying: “There’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.”

During the same year he said reality star Caitlyn Jenner should die because of her sex change.