Hate preacher’s TV channel gets cash from gift aid

According to The Times of London  the Islamic Research Foundation International, based in Birmingham and indirectly funded by UK tax breaks, has given most of its charitable income in the past two years to Peace TV.

The station is headed by Zakir Naik, a Muslim preacher who is also a trustee of the foundation, and who was banned from Britain in 2010 over extremist statements that were “on their face supportive of Osama bin Laden, anti-Jewish and otherwise unacceptable,” according to court documents quoted by the Times.

Ofcom reviewed Peace TV’s Urdu service as part of its routine monitoring and was concerned by the transmission last year of lectures by Israr Ahmad, a scholar who died in 2010.

In one lecture he effectively blamed Jews for the Holocaust: “That is the mark of this cursed race, that despite God’s divine grace 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.”

The watchdog ruled that the broadcast contained “very harmful and highly offensive content” which amounted to a serious breach of the broadcasting code. It added that the comments could be a form of hate speech.