A Muslim community radio station in Bury has been fined £3,500 by Ofcom for “antisemitic hate speech” after it aired a speech by a Pakistani scholar in Urdu.
On 17 October 2023, 10 days after Hamas launched its attack on Israel, “Salaam BCR” radio station aired a 38-minute speech by Shujauddin Sheikh, the current leader of the Islamic group Tanzeem-e-Islami.
In the speech, Sheikh presented his views on the ongoing situation in the Middle East, with a particular focus on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
In his critique, the cleric called Jews “the biggest enemies of humanity,” which seemed to have been the main point of controversy for Ofcom – the UK’s regulator of broadcast media.
A year later, Ofcom released a statement labelling the broadcast as “antisemitic hate speech and derogatory and abusive treatment of Jewish people.”
And on July 14, Ofcom decided to formally impose a fine of £3,500 on Salaam BCR.
The licensee of the Salaam BCR radio station, Markaz-Al-Huda, said Shuajuddin Sheikh was “a credible speaker from a well-respected organisation in the Muslim world” and that “no content [in the program] in our humble opinion, was considered inciting hatred to any section of the community.”
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Markaz-Al-Huda went onto cite the fine for antisemitism as a “malicious attempt to harm our community efforts and our community radio.”
After the decision was published by Ofcom last year, Markas-Al-Huda also accused the regulator of being a “discriminative and Islamophobic organisation.”
The radio station gave up its broadcast license shortly after as a “gesture of our objection to fairness and disgust.”
The ‘hate speech’ in question
The 38-minute speech delivered by Shujauddin Sheikh outside the Karachi Press Club in Pakistan on October 12, 2023, focused on Jewish people.
For example, Sheikh talked about the role Jews had in the persecution of Prophet Isa (as), and their opinions on Prophet Muhammad (pbuh): “These are the Jews who were envious of the last Prophet. Satan was envious of the first prophet, Prophet Adam.
“He became the enemy of humanity. The Jews were envious of the last Prophet, Prophet Muhammad.”
It is within this context that Sheikh said the most controversial statement during his speech, stating that “Jews are the biggest enemies of humanity.”
There was also a personal interpretation by Sheikh on the Talmud and the status of non-Jews within it. He claimed that “the Talmud says the rest of mankind are animals.”
The reason why Sheikh mentioned this was to draw parallels to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as he highlighted that Israeli government officials made reference to Palestinians as animals with no right to live.
Tanzeem-e-Islami, the organisation which Sheikh leads, argued that “the speech provided a critical examination of Zionism… and the policies associated with it… particularly in the context of the state of Israel.”
The response continued, stating that the speech should therefore be “distinguished from hate speech.”
But in Ofcom’s report, they felt the speaker “went beyond a critical examination… and failed to distinguish between Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
Ofcom fine ‘Islamophobic’
Markaz-Al-Huda maintained its stance throughout the investigation that the fine imposed on them was an act of Islamophobia, and that they had been unjustly targeted.
The organisation subsequently gave up its license voluntarily, stating that they “cannot operate under these racist/Islamophobic prejudicial hardline policies.”
In an interview with 5Pillars, Anwarul Haq, a leading trustee of Markaz-Al-Huda, felt that his radio channel was being unfairly monitored and surveilled.
“The broadcast was in Urdu… the content was being monitored and victimised,” Haq said.
Haq also told 5Pillars that he holds no antisemitic beliefs, and was “just relaying facts as they were” regarding Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Upon reflecting on the series of events, Haq said that he wanted to apologise to those whom he had offended, but was denied the right to do so under policies of anonymity and Ofcom regulations.
“I will not give them a penny… and not give them the satisfaction of having penalised someone unfairly,” he said.
Ofcom has previously delivered much more hefty fines to Islamic organisations for “antisemitism and hate speech.”
On 3 November 2020, Islam Channel was fined £20,000 for an episode on the Four Rightly Guided Khalifas, which Ofcom said “ascribed a perpetually negative characteristic to Jewish people… in both ancient and more recent times.”
The Shia Ahlebait TV channel was also fined £10,000 for antisemitism on 25 April 2023.
