A woman has been convicted after she posted on Facebook that Jews were behind “the murder of children.”
Tahra Ahmed, 51, of Haringey, was found guilty last Friday following a trial at the Old Bailey of two counts of stirring up racial hatred by publishing written material.
She will be sentenced at the same court on February 11.
The conviction follows posts made by Ahmed in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.
In one post she said: “I’ve been at the scene, at the protest and at the community meetings and have met many of the victims… some who were still in the same clothes they escaped in. They are very real and genuine, their pain and suffering is raw and deep and their disgusting neglect by authorities continues.
“Watch the footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them. They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.
“Grenfell is owned by a private Jewish property developer just like the twin towers was owned by Jew Silverstein who collected trillions in insurance claims. I wonder how much Goldman is standing to make in the world’s most expensive real estate location.”
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In another post, likely to have been published on January 26, 2017, she said: “Jews have always been the ones behind ritual torture, crucifixion and murder of children, especially young boys, as a way of atoning for their sins in order to be allowed back into Palestine.”
Prosecutor Hugh French said the posts Ahmed published were “virulently antisemitic and significantly crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal democracy.”
During the trial she claimed her comments were political rather than antisemitic.
Giving evidence Ahmed told the court: “When you take things out of context, like you are with this, it totally bastardises it.”
“This whole thing is a sham – what is happening to me. For basically two Facebook posts I’m being hung drawn and quartered in a place where murderers are tried. This is six days of taxpayers’ money being spent on 12 jurors and all these barristers and judges and for what? For something that was stated five years ago. It is absolutely preposterous that you are taking something completely out of context and crucifying me for it.”
Ahmed told the court the “Jews” she referred to in the posts were those who belonged to a criminal cabal of the evil elite who are orchestrating everything in order to divide and conquer the world.
She said she was not referring to the common Jew. She added that she has made the distinction between the common and cabal Jew ‘hundreds of times.
“The one or two occasions where I haven’t qualified it, you have literally picked those two occasions where I have done that. If you look at the other comments, I have always qualified it with satanic, Zionist, evil, ruling or whatever.”
In December 2017 the posts were reported to police by the Community Security Trust (CST) and Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, and an immediate investigation began by officers from Central West’s Public Protection team.
Ahmed was interviewed under caution about the post but declined to comment. She was charged in May 2021.
Detective Sergeant Ross Burrell said: “The comments posted by Ahmed were grossly offensive, abusive and insulting. Her comments showed a clear intent to stir up racial hatred and such vile remarks will not be tolerated.
“Those who seek to deliberately drive our communities apart by spreading such spite can expect to be brought to account. We’re here and ready to help anyone who has been affected by someone else’s prejudice, ignorance or violence.”
Gideon Falter, CEO of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, who reported Ms. Ahmed to the police said: “Tahra Ahmed sought to twist the Grenfell Tower tragedy to fit her venomous world view in which it seems that any evil can be attributed to Jews. She used people’s suffering and anger in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy and tried to wield it as a weapon against Jews before an audience of tens of thousands on social media.”
Dave Rich, the director of policy at the CST, who also reported Ahmed to the Met said: “Tahra Ahmed’s claim that the Grenfell fire was a ‘Jewish sacrifice’ is one of the most despicable antisemitic slurs I have ever heard. Grenfell was a terrible tragedy and for her to exploit it to promote her vile hatred of Jewish people is beyond belief. It is absolutely right that she has been held accountable for her actions. Tahra Ahmed left nobody in any doubt about her twisted worldview when she gave evidence herself. It was an antisemitic stream of consciousness full of abusive, hurtful and utterly false claims about Judaism and Jewish people.”
