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British Court Fines Islamist Satellite TV Channel for Antisemitic Propaganda

An Islamist satellite TV channel has been fined $27,000 by a court in the United Kingdom for broadcasting antisemitic propaganda about Jews. Mohamed Ali Harrath, a former member of the Tunisian Islamic Front, is the founder.

The London-based Islam Channel station was investigated by Ofcom — the UK’s official agency dealing with broadcasters — following complaints about a program it ran in 2018.

A religious education series on the history of the Qur’an was deemed to have broken the broadcasting code. A segment of the program accused Jewish people of corrupting holy books and seeking the destruction of Islam in both ancient and more recent times.

It characterized Jewish people as “tyrannical” and having an “evil mind.” It also associated them with “tyranny,” “oppression,” “troublemaking” and “poisonous acts.”

“Ofcom’s breach decision found an episode of the program ‘The Rightly Guided Khalifas’ contained uncontextualized antisemitic hate speech which amounted to the abuse or derogatory treatment of Jewish people,” Ofcom said in a statement.

“The program also used further negative and stereotypical terms to describe Jewish people,” the statement continued. “We considered this constituted abusive and derogatory treatment of Jewish people.”

The decision marks the second time the Islam Channel has been sanctioned by the regulator.

It had previously been fined $40,000 after presenters condoned marital rape and violence against women.

In one instance, preacher Sheikh Abdul Majid Ali described women who wore perfume in public places as “prostitutes.”