Antisemitic candidate suspended by the Liberal Democrats after being exposed by CAA, but reappointed to advise Bedfordshire Police

Antisemite Ashuk Ahmed MBE has been suspended as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Parliamentary constituency of Luton South after being exposed in the media by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

However Ahmed has been appointed Vice Chair of Bedfordshire Police South Independent Advisory Group (IAG). Ahmed was previously a member of the Luton IAG for Bedfordshire Police but quietly stood down following a complaint to police in November 2014 about his appalling antisemitic posts on Facebook.

Ahmed’s social media output has been riddled with the most virulent antisemitism, including the conspiratorial charge that ISIS is a Jewish invention whose horrors are propagated by the “Jewish media and their gentile pawns” in order to “justify more slaughter.” He described these conspiracy theories as the “truth about ISIS.” One of the conspiracy theory videos shared by Ahmed was by “Humanity United against AshkeNAZI”, an extreme antisemitic group which claims to “expose…the current take over of the united states by the jewish ashkenazi tribe.”

Ahmed further claimed that “Zionists control half the world”, told racist jokes in which Jews spitefully spit in Arabs’ clothes and urinate in their drinks, claimed “Jewish democracy” means bloodlust, wrote that the Labour and Conservative Parties are in the grip of their “Zionist paymasters” and painted the Israeli Prime Minister with blood dripping from his mouth while feasting on a child (an invocation of the blood libel, a medieval antisemitic trope).

Despite interviewing him under caution about the posts, Bedfordshire Police have allowed him to remain on the IAG and even permitted him to be promoted. The IAG advises on hate crime, and tells the Bedfordshire community, particularly its Jewish members that their police force is quite content to allow antisemites to hold positions of power.

In a statement to Campaign Against Antisemitism, Chief Superintendent David Boyle from Bedfordshire Police said: “The Bedfordshire Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs) provide independent advice to the force, as well as observe and monitor aspects of policing. We are aware of the current Vice-Chair of the South IAG’s former position within the IAG prior to its reformation, and of his decision to stand down during 2014. A police investigation was launched into reports of the sharing of antisemitic posts on Mr Ahmed’s Facebook page, but no criminal offences were found to have been committed. The selection of IAG committee members takes place jointly with Bedfordshire Police, and during the current formation of the South IAG there have been no concerns raised among the force of impartiality from any current serving members.”

Ahmed removed the offensive material when he discovered that he had been reported to police, but Campaign Against Antisemitism has screenshots of the hate-filled pages. We have been told that Ahmed was not charged with a crime because Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers said that they could not charge him because he did not write the material himself but was just passing it on. This appears to be another example of CPS lawyers failing to comprehend the law on antisemitism; it is of course a criminal offence to distribute antisemitic material written by others.

Despite the fact that Ahmed had been exposed as an antisemite, the Liberal Democrats still decided to select him as their candidate for the Luton South Constituency in the forthecoming General Election, just as they did in 2015. The Party only moved to suspend Ahmed when Campaign Against Antisemitism exposed him in the Daily Mail. This is outrageous and we call on the Liberal Democrats to expel him from the Party and send a clear message that their party is not a safe place for antisemites. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has previously said that he “thinks antisemitism should be called out at every single opportunity it rears its ugly head” and that Jews will find “a warm home” in his Party.

Ahmed clearly has some standing in his local community and was awarded an MBE in 2009 for “services to young people.” He has worked as a community development officer for North Hertfordshire Council, and he has also worked at a radio station which received the Queen’s Award for Volunteering and which purportedly works to tackle extremism.

It is unconscionable that someone who has been expelled from a police advisory group for such vile antisemitism can be reappointed as Vice-Chair a little over two years later. Both Bedfordshire Police and the Liberal Democrats must terminate their association with him immediately, in the case of the Liberal Democrats by expelling Ahmed from the Party. It should also be said that, had the Crown Prosecution Service not failed again to do its job properly, it is highly unlikely that he would still be in possession of his MBE.