A Muslim radio station that broadcast a chant glorifying their “warlike” prophet Muhammad, and encouraged the beheading of “lowlifes” and murder of “filthy” non-Muslims, has been fined £2,000 by the regulator for “hate speech”.
Radio Dawn is transmitted in foreign languages in the Nottingham area and broadcast the offending ‘Nasheed’ – an Islamic chant set to music – in December 2016.
The station is run by the Karimia Institute, which was founded by Musharraf Hussain who was awarded an OBE in 2009 for “services to community relations”.
However, Ofcom investigators found the station had insulted non-Muslims and suggested that violently attacking them would bring glory to Islam, breaching the station’s community radio licence.
The Nasheed, read in Urdu by a young boy, was around 17 minutes long and contained the words: “Had it not been for the warlike attitude of the companions of the prophet, would the world still remember the sword of Muhammad?”
According to Ofcom’s translation, it continued: “Even today if we could only reignite that passion that existed among them [figures in Islamic history who had been successful on the battlefield], we too could bury the Kaafir I Murdaar [filthy disbelievers] today.
“If only we could reawaken the love for Jihad we could [once again] behead lowlifes like Abu Jahal.
“The whole world on one side and the Taliban on the other. We are required to salute and honour their display of bravery and steadfastness… It must be understood that justice will only be handed out at the point of the sword.”
The Karimia Institute, the station’s licensee, claimed the Nasheed’s broadcast was likely accidental and described it as “extremely regrettable”.
They said its meaning may not have been understood, as well as insisting it would not have been “chosen for its content but, rather, it was for the melodious and harmonic nature of the track”.
However, Ofcom regulators said they were concerned the words “suggest that similar violent acts committed against non-Muslim people would bring honour to Islam”.
They added: “Further, the Nasheed included a number of pejorative references to non-Muslim people. In particular, non-Muslim people were repeatedly referred to as ‘Kufaar’ (the Arabic word for disbeliever) and on one occasion, ‘Kaafir I Murdaar’ (meaning filthy disbeliever in Urdu).”
Just a couple of months ago, Ofcom found the same radio station to have breached separate rules, after telling listeners to give the advice of non-Muslim doctors “no importance”.
Ofcom said the advice was potentially dangerous and described the segment as “discriminatory and potentially offensive, not only to non-Muslim people, but also to members of the Muslim community”.
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