A London-based satellite broadcaster that describes itself as "the voice of authority for Muslims in the UK" has been accused of giving a platform to Anwar al-Awlaki, the extremist cleric with alleged links to al-Qaida and to the man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day.The Islam Channel, a free-to-air English-language channel that claims to be "a trustworthy source to the two million-plus population of Muslims in the UK", last year carried adverts for a box set of DVDs of Awlaki's sermons and for at least two events at which the cleric was due to be the star speaker via a video link.
The channel's website has allowed visitors to click through to a pooled archive of Islamic scholars, from which they can download sermons by Awlaki, including "Stop Police Terror", "Brutality Towards Muslims" and "It's a War against Islam".
Leading British Muslim organisations, including the Islamic Society of Britain, have promoted Awlaki's lectures in the past, but now condemn his views. Haras Rafiq of Centri, a counter-extremism consultancy, said Awlaki's online influence over young radicals was becoming a serious concern. "The internet has by far overtaken TV as the favourite pastime of youngsters in countries such as the UK and the ability for people to download Awlaki's sermons is helping to provide radicalisation on demand," Rafiq said.
The channel's chief executive officer, Mohamed Ali Harrath, has been on an Interpol wanted list since 1992,
| Has he indeed? And the police have done nothing about it? Whatever happened to the kind of international cooperation Britain showed Libya recently? |
A spokeswoman for the channel said it had been unaware its website had provided links to Awlaki's sermons. She said the sermons were in an online archive shared with many websites. "Islam Channel has not at any time given a platform to Mr Awlaki," she said. The channel has now removed the link.
Maajid Nawaz, a former presenter on the Islam Channel who is now director of the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, said: "Islam Channel is beamed into thousands of Muslim homes every night. With such influence, however, comes responsibility."