An Islamic TV channel has been warned by the broadcasting standards regulator Ofcom that it faces sanctions after showing antisemitic lectures by a preacher who called Jews a “cursed race”.
Peace TV Urdu was found in breach of TV standards for broadcasting two recorded lecturers by the late Dr Israr Ahmad in September last year.
The overall effect would have been to “promote highly negative antisemitic stereotypes about and attitudes towards Jewish people,” Ofcom stated in its decision today.
“In our view the terms used to describe Jewish people such as ‘like a cancer’, ‘evil genius,’ ‘their poison,’ ‘cursed people’, ‘cursed race’ were particularly strong and inflammatory,” the watchdog stated.
The lecturer repeatedly portrayed Jews in “overwhelming negative and stereotypical terms” and said the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – the notorious Tzarist forgery – revealed the plans of powerful Jews.
Dr Ahmad – who died in 2010 – said Jews were bent on a vendetta and enmity for the Prophet Muhammad. “They do not take advantage of the opportunity to repent, which is why they are afflicted by great calamities, and the example is what happened to them at the hands of the Germans.”
While they were clever, they expended most of their energy in “hatching conspiracies”, he declared.
They regarded non-Jews as “animals with a human face” who could be exploited and deceived.
Club TV, which holds the licence for Peace TV Urdu, told Ofcom it “sincerely regretted” the broadcasts which were not consistent with its beliefs and would not repeat them.
Ofcom said that “the two programmes contained antisemitic material that was likely to have caused harm and offence”.