CAA to write to Charity Commission and Honours Forfeiture Committee over charity Chief’s alleged social media posts about Zionism and the Holocaust
Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to both the Charity Commission and the Honours Forfeiture Committee over incendiary social media posts that are understood to have been shared by the Chief Executive of the British Muslim Heritage Centre.
Maqsood Ahmad OBE is reported by the Jewish News to have posted several inflammatory tweets in reference to Zionism and Zionists, including one which read: “The Holocaust and Nazism wasn’t just the gas chambers. It had many things that Zionism is today, to a degree…They wail ‘never again’ – but never is happening again. Don’t take my word for it. The decent Jewish are even saying it.”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Mr Ahmad also reportedly left a comment beneath a video of a man burning the Israeli flag stating: “Respect, these are the real Jews.”
The JC reported that Mr Ahmed also ‘liked’ Twitter posts in which a United States ambassador and a Congressman was referred to as a “ZioNazi” and one which asserted that Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, David Lammy, had been “bought and paid for” by the Israeli lobby.
He was also said to have retweeted an image of the Statue of Liberty with its eyes covered by the flag of Israel, alongside the caption: “Palestine [sic] isn’t the only country occupied by zionism.”
Mr Ahmed is also alleged to have commented, in response to a post from comedian David Baddiel about rapper Kanye West, that “Kanye West may be dangerous but not as dangerous as Zionist Government of Isreal [sic] who continue to discriminate and occupy Palistinian [sic] land…”
Following the reports of his historic social media posts, Mr Ahmad resigned from his role as the non-executive director of the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust.
A spokesperson for the Trust said: “As soon as we were informed about the comments, we raised them with Maqsood Ahmad and he stepped down from his role on the board with immediate effect.”
However, Mr Ahmad, who is understood to have also worked at the Home Office where he claims that he was “responsible for developing equality and human rights policies for the police”, seemingly remains in his role as Chief Executive of the British Muslim Heritage Centre.
A spokesperson for the British Muslim Heritage Centre said: “We have spoken to the CEO and can assure you that his views are not consistent with the views of the British Muslim Heritage Centre. These are the CEO’s private Twitter responses, expressed on his personal Twitter account.
“Moving forward we are reviewing our social media policy for all our staff to ensure that they maintain professionalism and good judgment in their private social media activity. In addition to this we will be organising a social media training workshop for all staff.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These comments are horrific. It is staggering to think that someone with these views held such significant positions in these institutions. It is only right that Mr Ahmad has stepped down from his role at the NHS, but he appears to remain as Chief Executive of the British Muslim Heritage Centre, which we will be writing to the Charity Commission about. Additionally, we will be drawing his remarks to the attention of the Honours Forfeiture Committee.”
