A homophobic American church group has announced plans to picket the funeral of actor and comedian Robin Williams.
The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church announced through its Twitter feed that it plans to stage a picket at the stars funeral.
The fundamentalist group claims to “preach against all form of sin” and views homosexuality as “a clear and present danger to the survival of America”.
Mr Williams killed himself at his home in California a week ago, and the religious group is thought to have selected his funeral because of his portrayal of a gay father in comedy The Birdcage.
A message posted through its Twitter account read: “Warn living not to mock the god of eternity. Westboro Baptist Church to picket Robin Williams’s funeral.”
Westboro Baptist Church has staged thousands of pickets in the US over the last 45 years, claiming the deaths of soldiers in foreign wars, natural disasters and attacks on America are all God’s revenge for the tolerance shown to gay people.
In August 2011, the Kansas-based group announced its members planned to picket Aberdeen’s Queen’s Cross Church because of gay minister, the Rev Scott Rennie.
But church leader Pastor Fred Phelps – who died in March this year – and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper were both put on a Home Office list of people banned from entering the UK in 2009.
Mr Williams’s family are believed to be planning a small San Francisco funeral for the actor, who starred in films including Good Morning Vietnam, Good Will Hunting, The Fisher King and Mrs Doubtfire.
The location of the funeral has not been disclosed, but the group intends to send members to picket at the location when details emerge.
Mr Williams – who had been in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease – hung himself at his home in Tiburon, California, aged 63, having battled drink and drug addiction for years.
The British Government previously used hatred laws to ban Westboro Baptist Church members from coming to the UK in 2009.
However, such laws banning incitement to hatred are not in place in the US.