More than 90 percent of budget spent on antisemitic and terror-inciting videos.
By Pesach Benson, United with Israel
The UK Charity Commission ordered the dissolution of an Arab charity group for spending the bulk of its multi-million pound income on antisemitic and terror-inciting videos, the Jewish Chronicle reported last week.
The commission’s decision ended a two-year investigation of the Dubai-based Peace-TV one of the largest Muslim TV broadcasting networks in the world. The Charity Commission began probing Peace TV when Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, fined Peace TV £300,000 for airing hate speech and incitement to murder in 2020.
The Peace TV and Peace TV Urdu channels offer programs in Arabic, Urdu, Albanian, Chinese, English and other languages.
Ofcom issued 10 rulings against Peace TV in between 2009-2019 for “violence and dangerous or seriously anti-social behaviour,” according to the JC.
One particular ruling by Ofcom in 2016 cited by the JC said Peace TV described Jews as “like a cancer,” “evil genius[es],” “poison,” “cursed people,” and a “cursed race.” Ofcom said those characterizations were “particularly strong and inflammatory.”
The station was founded by Zakir Naik, who has been described by Emirati media as an “Islamic televangelist.” He was born in India but fled the country in 2018, where he is currently wanted on charges of terror financing, hate speech, inciting communal hatred, and money laundering.
Naik is now based in Malaysia and also heads the Islamic Research Foundation International which the Charity Commission said provided a 96 percent of Peace TV’s income.
The JC also reported that a large number of inflammatory videos removed from YouTube at the end of March were originally posted by Peace TV.
The Charity Commission accused Naik of being “responsible for repeated incidents of misconduct and/or mismanagement,” and “fundamental failures in governance” including severe “conflicts of interest”.
In 2010, Naik was banned from entering Britain over his extremist views, including his statement that “all Muslims should be terrorists.” Naik pointedly refused to denounce Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden by claiming he “had not researched him.”
Naik is also banned from Bangladesh, where authorities blame him for inspiring a 2016 terror attack in which five Islamic terrorists took hostages in Dhaka bakery. With 22 hostages and two police killed, it remains the deadliest terror attack in Bangladeshi history.
Peace TV no longer broadcasts in Britain.