Blaze victims ‘burnt in Jewish sacrifice’
A LONDON woman was sentenced to 11 months in prison last Friday for inciting race hate with antisemitic comments following the Grenfell Tower tragedy that claimed the lives of 72 people in 2017.
Tahra Ahmed, 51, was found guilty of two counts of stirring up racial hatred after expressing antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media in the aftermath of the deadly blaze.
A few days after the devastating fire in the tower block, Ahmed posted online that victims of the accident “were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice”.
On another occasion, she linked the Grenfell Tower incident to antisemitic conspiracy theories identified with the September 11 terror attacks in the US.
In an earlier post, she had written that Jews were “behind ritual torture” and “the murder of children”.
Having posted the statements on her Facebook page, Ahmed was reported to police by Jewish communal organisations, the Community Security Trust and the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
During her trial, prosecutor Hugh French said her posts had “crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal society”, noting that her Facebook account had revealed a history of antisemitism.
Ahmed claimed that her comments were political. French responded by noting that while her history on social media demonstrated “strongly held beliefs”, the posts written after the Grenfell Tower fire were “clear demonstrations of racial hatred”.
Ahmed was sentenced to 11 months in prison by the Central Criminal Court of England.
Ahmed was not the only person to share antisemitic conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the London tragedy.
Nazim Ali, a senior figure in the Islamic Human Rights Commission, was accused in July 2017 of blaming the fire on shady deals between the government and Zionists.
While attending a Al Quds day rally in June 2017, Ali said victims of the blaze were “killed by Zionists”, later adding: “It is the Zionists who give money to the Tory party, to kill people in high rise blocks … Careful, careful, careful of those rabbis who belong to the Board of Deputies, who have got blood on their hands.”
Gideon Falter, CEO of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said, “Ms Ahmed sought to twist the Grenfell Tower tragedy to fit her venomous world view in which it seems that any evil can be attributed to Jews. She used people’s suffering and anger in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy and tried to wield it as a weapon against Jews before an audience of tens of thousands on social media. We are pleased that she will now go to prison for her wicked fabrications.”
TIMES OF ISRAEL,
UK JEWISH NEWS
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