The Muslim Association of Britain has said it will remove from its website a story claiming “Jewish rings” kidnapped children from Algeria to harvest their organs for sale in Israel and America.
Its story linked the child abduction allegation to the arrest in July of a Brooklyn man, Levy-Itzhak Rosenbaum, who was accused of trying to buy kidneys for £6,000 and reselling them for almost £100,000.
It was claimed that the children were taken to Morocco, where the organs were removed and then taken to Israel and America.
Last month the Swedish paper Aftonbladet drew international criticism after it claimed that Israeli soldiers were harvesting organs from Palestinians.
The Board of Deputies said: “The propagation of these baseless stories serves no purpose except to demonise Jews and Israelis. All right-thinking people, of all faiths, should reject the climate of hate that is being encouraged.”
The story was based on comments made to an Algerian newspaper by a Professor Mustafa, said by the Muslim Association of Britain to be president of an Algerian health and development organisation.
Said Ferjani, head of policy and public relations for the MAB, said: “We are not making this up. I have seen it reported on Al Jazeera.”
But, he said, the story would be removed from the site.