A UK TV channel has been handed a £75,000 penalty for broadcasting antisemitic content.
Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, imposed the fine on Mohiuddin Digital Television Limited, which operates Noor TV, an Urdu-language channel operating in the UK.
In November 2015, the channel ran a programme during which one scholar, Allama Mufti Muhammad Saeed Sialvi Sahib, stated that the prophet Mohammed had told his followers, “whoever amongst you comes across a Jew, they should slay him immediately.” Allama Sialvi subsequently said that when a follower of the Prophet heard this, he immediately went and killed a Jewish trader with whom he’d had a long-standing business relationship.
As described in the Ofcom ruling, Allama Sialvi “held this to be an example of the devotion and obedience of a disciple to the Prophet Muhammed and on several occasions appeared to condone the killing of a Jewish trader.” The ruling went on to state that the Muslim scholar “held up in unequivocal terms the killing of a Jewish person as an example of devotion and obedience within the context of the Islamic faith.”
