According to The Daily Mail, a UK Muslim Radio station claims it accidentally broadcasted 25 hours of Al-Qaeda propaganda “by mistake”.
A Muslim radio station broadcast lectures by an Al Qaeda terror leader calling for holy war.
Iman FM transmitted 25 hours of sermons from Anwar Al-Awlaki, a hate preacher killed by a US drone strike in 2011.
A complaint was made to Ofcom, which has suspended the Sheffield-based station’s licence.
The watchdog said the material ‘amounted to a direct call to action to members of the Muslim community to prepare for and carry out violent action against non-Muslim people’.
Bosses at Iman FM have 21 days to explain themselves or be closed down. They found the extremist lectures on YouTube and broadcast them during Ramadan.
Ofcom said Al-Awlaki, who was an American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent, was an Al Qaeda leader, recruiter and trainer.
He is said to have inspired the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, an attempt to blow up an American airliner and the massacre of 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas.
The lectures were broadcast in English on June 14. In one, Al-Awlaki said: ‘Prepare whatever strength you have for holy war in the cause of Allah. This is a form of worship.’
Under broadcasting rules hate speech must not be included in TV or radio programmes except where justified by context.
Iman FM claimed to be unaware of the preacher’s background and said not all the material was checked before being aired.
The Ofcom ruling described this defence as ‘not credible’….
Is anyone surprised by the ruling? A radio station dedicates 25 hours to streaming the sermons of the former leader of Al-Qaeda, almost all of his sermons calling for Jihad and their best defense is we did it “by mistake”. Ridiculous.
