LONDON: Video sharing website YouTube has taken down the official channel of renowned Islamic scholar Dr Israr Ahmed over allegations of anti-Semitic comments.
Dr Israr Ahmed’s scholars have expressed outrage over the decision. Dr Israr Ahmed’s channel had nearly three million subscribers and his lectures were watched by a large number of people.
A London-based weekly newspapers ‘Jewish Chronicle’ had published several reports on Dr Israr Ahmed and claimed that British Pakistani Malik Faisal Akram, who took the Texas Synagogue hostage, was inspired by lectures of Dr Israr Ahmed.
The newspaper interviewed a whistleblower and former YouTube content moderator Khaled Hassan who claimed that the website hosted and failed to delete anti-semitic videos and even ignored moderators’ warnings to remove them.
The interview was conducted by journalist David Rose, who now works for Jewish Chronicle. The YouTube moderator told the publication that he had repeatedly raised the issue of anti-Jews content on YouTube including flagging Dr Israr Ahmed but his concerns were ignored.
He added Dr Ahmed’s lectures carried comments, such as “Jew World Order” and described Jews as “cursed people” or “cursed race” who had conspired against Muslims for centuries, and that they were “followers of Satan, intent on destroying Islam”.
On Friday, YouTube said it has removed two channels of Dr Israr Ahmed. “Upon review, we removed the channels belonging to Israr Ahmad for violating our hate speech policies, and a further eleven videos have been removed as either a result of this circumvention or for violating our Violent Extremism and hate speech policies,” it added.
Dr Israr Ahmed’s teachings are revered by Muslims all over the world who have condemned the removal of his channel from YouTube and accused the tech giant of undermining freedom of expression.
