Islamic TV station taken off air by UK watchdog after repeatedly inciting murder

Founder of Peace TV has focus of allegations of incitement for almost a decade

Radical preacher Zakir Naik's Peace TV has been taken off the air after an investigation by UK watchdog Ofcom.
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An Islamic television station, whose founder has been banned from the UK for almost a decade, has been taken off air after a British watchdog found it repeatedly incited murder.

Despite Britain’s media regulator Ofcom warning the satellite Peace TV station in July that it breached regulations by broadcasting hate speeches it has continued to air extreme content.

In a 16-hour period last month it broadcasted a banned programme, which incited viewers to murder magicians, three times.

Even when it was challenged over the documentary, it then issued a cursory apology which was aired at the same time as harrowing footage of a person being repeatedly stabbed.

Ahead of Ofcom stripping the channel of its licence, the owners voluntarily surrendered them.

The UK regulator said it has ruled the breaches were “very serious”.

“Ofcom issued a draft notice to suspend the broadcasting licence of Club TV Limited, after its channel Peace TV Urdu repeatedly rebroadcast material that we had previously found incited murder,” it said.

“On 18 November 2019, having received Ofcom’s draft suspension notice, Club TV surrendered its licence.

“Its sister company Lord Production Inc Limited, which held the licence to broadcast the English language Peace TV service, also surrendered its licence at the same time. The Peace TV and Peace TV Urdu services are no longer broadcasting.”

It added: “If these broadcasters, or those controlling them, were to apply for a broadcast licence in the future, Ofcom’s commencement of this suspension process, our decision and the full compliance history of the former licensees would be major factors.”

The stations, which claim to reach 200 million viewers, have received more than £3.2m of funding from the Islamic Research Foundation International (IRFI) over the last four years, according to its latest accounts.

In July, Ofcom found that four programmes on Peace TV breached broadcasting rules on incitement to crime, hate speech, abuse and offence after it aired shows describing people it targeted as “worse than animals” and more “corrupted and contaminated” than pigs and advocated the execution of magicians.

Peace TV’s founder Zakir Naik, 54, preaches on the station and is also the founder of the IRFI – two of the breaches related to him.

The Indian-born Islamist preacher, who is based in Malaysia, was banned from Britain in 2010.

He is also banned from India and Bangladesh and is accused by the Indian government of laundering £23m.

Both countries have accused him of inspiring terror acts, after the perpetrators of two separate attacks had allegedly followed his sermons.

Mr Naik was banned from Bangladesh following a terror attack on a tourist café in Dhaka in 2016 which it’s alleged one the perpetrators was inspired by his sermons and followed him on Facebook.

It has also been alleged that Najibullah Zazi who plotted a terror attack on the New York subway in 2009 was an “admirer” of his sermons.

In the past, Mr Naik has called music a sin. He once expressed support for Osama bin Laden, although he subsequently said that his statements were misunderstood and taken out of context. He is also accused of saying that men could beat their wives “lightly” and advocating the death penalty for apostates.

A week after the Dhaka siege, in which 24 people died, India’s information and broadcasting minister, Venkaiah Naidu, noted the Facebook connection between the Dhaka attackers and Mr Naik and said the preacher’s speeches were “highly objectionable”.

It then launched an investigation into the source of funds behind the Mumbai-based IRFI set up by Mr Naik in 1991.

Club TV has claimed it surrendered its broadcasting licence because the IRFI’s board of trustees withdrew funding for the channels.

It said: “We should add that we do not accept that it would have been necessary, fair or lawful for our licence to be suspended or revoked had it not been surrendered.”

Ofcom added: “As Club TV has surrendered its licence, Ofcom no longer needs to proceed with the suspension/ revocation process.”