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Extract from Shoah revisionist’s hate book posted by Islamophobia adviser
Faisal Hanif shared extract from 'profoundly antisemitic' Gilad Atzmon book
December 3, 2021 18:32
Faisal Hanif shared extract from 'profoundly antisemitic' Gilad Atzmon book
December 3, 2021 18:32A Muslim media analyst who specialises in monitoring news reports for Islamophobia has promoted an extract from a “profoundly antisemitic” book by the notorious Holocaust revisionist Gilad Atzmon.
Faisal Hanif works at the Centre for Media Monitoring, a unit affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain that has advised the BBC to help shape its coverage of Islam.
While the extract shared by Mr Hanif did not contain any antisemitic comments, researchers at the Community Security Trust (CST) said Mr Atzmon’s book, Being in Time, was “profoundly antisemitic”.
It featured “a jumble of amateur philosophy, conspiracy theory and prejudice … and antisemitic soundbites”, they added.
Earlier this year, Mr Hanif’s Centre for Media Monitoring ran a focus group for the BBC to help editors and department heads at the broadcaster shape its coverage of Islam.
It is not clear whether Mr Hanif participated in the session.When contacted by the JC, Mr Hanif apologised for the post and admitted it was an error “both professionally and personally” to fail to check Mr Atzmon’s wider views.
He said: “I stand opposed to all forms of racism including antisemitism and Islamophobia.
“I came across a blog post by Gilad Atzmon which was clearly not antisemitic and was comparing right and left ideology when I was researching the corrosive impact of the far right.
“While I took the blog post at face value at the time, I was unaware that Gilad Atzmon himself was profoundly antisemitic.”
Anti-extremism group Hope not Hate has described Mr Atzmon, a jazz musician, as “an antisemite who has promoted the works of Holocaust deniers”.
Mr Hanif has also praised an article about the Muslim Brotherhood by Yvonne Ridley on LinkedIn, describing the piece as “great”.
Ms Ridley, a journalist kidnapped by the Taliban in 2001, has a long history of making controversial statements about Jews.
In 2008 she described then Foreign Secretary David Miliband as “a gutless little weasel who lost more than his foreskin when he was circumcised”.
In 2009, addressing a Viva Palestine meeting, Ms Ridley said: “Zionists have tentacles everywhere.”
The Centre for Media Monitoring was established by the Muslim Council of Britain in 2018 to research how Muslims are portrayed in the news and to empower the community to lobby for change.
It has since given evidence to Parliament and formed part of press regulator IPSO’s working committee that developed guidelines for journalists reporting on Muslims and Islam.
Footage published online shows the Centre for Media Monitoring’s community liaison officer, Amanda Morris, declaring during a question-and-answer session for the organisation that she is “not qualified to give advice on how to talk to Zionist politicians”.