Grenfell volunteer who said blaze was 'Jewish Sacrifice' convicted of stirring up racial hatred

It said: ‘I've been at the scene, at the protest and at the community meetings and have met many of the victims...some who were still in the same clothes they escaped in. They are very real and genuine [sic], their pain and suffering is raw and deep and their disgusting neglect by authorities continues.

"Watch the footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them. They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.

"Grenfell is owned by a private Jewish property developer just like the twin towers was owned by Jew Silverstein who collected trillions in insurance claims. I wonder how much Goldman is standing to make in the world's most expensive real estate location."

The second post, likely to have been published on 26 January 2017, was published on a Facebook group with over 55,000 members.

It says: ‘Jews have always been the ones behind ritual torture, crucifixion and murder of children, especially young boys, as a way of atoning for their sins in order to be allowed back into Palestine."

 Prosecutor Hugh French said the posts Ahmed published were 'virulently anti-Semitic and significantly crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal democracy.

"Looking at the language of the posts, the crude racial stereotyping and the insulting tone, the Crown say that you can infer that she posted them intending to stir up racial hatred and that racial hatred was likely to be stirred up."

Detective Sergeant Ross Burrell said police conducted an ‘open source review’ of Ahmed’s Facebook in November 2018 which gave them access to her account’s activity.

 The officer read aloud posts and comments, attributed to Ahmed’s Facebook account, broadly agreeing that the 9/11 disaster was a Jewish ‘ruse’.

 One post said: ‘9/11 was not an inside job.

"It was a Mossad job and the dirty, lying and devious… blamed it on the Muslims.

‘They subject their evil on me and my people and when we criticise and point out facts, they cry antisemitism.’

Another post read: ”Hate speech” is so blatantly just a ruse to cover up the exposure of their crimes. Just like 9/11 was a ruse to get into illegal invasions…of the Arab nations.'

In his closing speech, Benjamin Newton, defending, said the prosecution ‘muddied the waters’ in terms of what Ahmed was actually on trial for.

"We do not prosecute everybody who writes something offensive on social media because there is a line.

"She is not on trial for being antisemitic.

"Even if she was, if she came before you and said, 'Actually I am predisposed against Jewish people,' it is not a crime.

"The prosecution have to prove to you that she is guilty of stirring up racial hatred, and I suggest she absolutely did not, and the evidence makes it clear that was not her intention. Freedom of speech is people being allowed to say things that you do not approve of."

Giving evidence Ahmed told the court: ‘When you take things out of context, like you are with this, it totally bastardises it,’ she said during cross-examination.

 ‘This whole thing is a sham – what is happening to me.

 ‘For basically two Facebook posts I’m being hung drawn and quartered in a place where murderers are tried.

 ‘This is six days of taxpayers’ money being spent on 12 jurors and all these barristers and judges and for what?

 ‘For something that was stated five years ago.

 ‘It is absolutely preposterous that you are taking something completely out of context and crucifying me for it.’

 Ahmed told the court the ‘Jews’ she referred to in the posts were those who belonged to a criminal ‘cabal’ of ‘the evil elite who are orchestrating everything in order to divide and conquer the world.

She said she was not referring to the ‘common Jew’ and said: ‘I have Jewish friends. Nobody ever said, “Tahra that didn’t come across well, because they know me; they know I’m not racist."

 She added that she has made the distinction between the ‘common’ and ‘cabal’ Jew ‘hundreds of times’.

 ‘The one or two occasions where I haven’t qualified it, you have literally picked those two occasions where I have done that.

 ‘If you look at the other comments, I have always qualified it with satanic, Zionist, evil, ruling or whatever.’

 After the jury convicted her Judge Mark Dennis said: "All sentencing options are open. Nothing has been decided one way or the other."

Gideon Falter, CEO of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, who reported Ms. Ahmed to the police said: “Tahra Ahmed sought to twist the Grenfell Tower tragedy to fit her venomous world view in which it seems that any evil can be attributed to Jews. She used people’s suffering and anger in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy and tried to wield it as a weapon against Jews before an audience of tens of thousands on social media."

Dave Rich, the director of policy at the CST, who also reported Ahmed to the Met said: “Tahra Ahmed’s claim that the Grenfell fire was a ‘Jewish sacrifice’ is one of the most despicable antisemitic slurs I have ever heard. Grenfell was a terrible tragedy and for her to exploit it to promote her vile hatred of Jewish people is beyond belief. It is absolutely right that she has been held accountable for her actions. Tahra Ahmed left nobody in any doubt about her twisted worldview when she gave evidence herself. It was an antisemitic stream of consciousness full of abusive, hurtful and utterly false claims about Judaism and Jewish people."

Ahmed, of Lansdowne Road, Tottenham, denied but was convicted of two counts of stirring up racial hatred by publishing written material.

 She will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on February 11.