Radio station off-air after "unwittingly" airing lectures by "terrorist"

A RADIO station broadcasting to Rotherham has had its licence suspended by Ofcom for airing lectures by a “global terrorist”.
Anwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki

Sheffield-based Iman FM, which is aimed at Muslim listeners, played 25 hours of content by the late Anwar al-Awlaki, who was linked to al-Qaeda by the UN Security Council in 2011.

In one such lecture, al-Awlaki urged listeners: “Prepare whatever strength you have for jihad.”

Ofcom suspended the radio station after complaints about two lectures that were broadcast.

Station owner Iman Media UK has caused controversy before, notably last year when it invited celebrities who praised an Islamist assassin to speak at Choudhry’s Orient Express in Masbrough.

Anwar al-Awlaki is said to have inspired shootings at US military base Fort Hood in 2009, a 2010 attempted car bombing at Times Square in New York and the attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP the same year.

He also helped to produce Inspire — an English language al-Qaeda recruitment magazine and manual.

The Yemeni-American preacher was killed in a US drone strike in 2011 but his sermons are still available online.

On July 4, Ofcom suspended Iman FM broadcasts for 21 days pending a decision on its future.

The regulator said a listener had complained about two lectures broadcast during Ramadan, said to have “encouraged violence and religious hatred”.

These condemned the “evil actions” of Jews, called jihad “worship” and urged “clandestine special operations” against the “enemies of Allah”.

Iman FM told the regulator that lectures were broadcast in place of its live daily breakfast show, while the presenter was away.

Station managers told Ofcom they were “not aware” of al-Awlaki’s history and “had no knowledge of him being proscribed by the United Nations”.

They said volunteers had searched for and downloaded lectures “on the life of the prophet Muhammad” and that not all were listened to beforehand.

Anwar al-Awlaki was not identified on air because staff were “rushing to prepare the lectures for broadcast ahead of Ramadan”, they said.

Volunteers and management were “unaware of the speaker of the background,” they added.

But Ofcom decided this did “not appear credible”, as information on al-Awlaki was “freely available” online.

Two broadcasts were “extremely serious” breaches of sections of Ofcom’s code on inciting crime or disorder, hate speech and discrimination.

In a subsequent live show, a presenter told listeners that “Iman FM always advances the causes of a united community” and “condemned in the strongest terms” al-Awlaki’s words and actions.

But the Ofcom report said the regulator had “serious concerns” that Iman FM  gave “a platform to a widely-known terrorist leader and al-Qaeda recruiter”. 

It added that al-Awlaki’s words could “condone, promote and encourage violent behaviour towards non-Muslim people”.

Station management told Ofcom the broadcast was an “isolated mistake” and an “unwitting oversight”.

It confirmed on Facebook that it had “temporarily stopped broadcasting” due to a 21-day licence suspension “on the basis that unwittingly some controversial lectures were broadcast”.

They added: “Please note that we are trying our level best to remedy this situation and look forward to broadcasting as soon as possible.”