Concerns raised that Texas synagogue hostage-taker may have been influenced by antisemitic Urdu sermons that YouTube has failed to remove

Concerns have been raised that the Texas synagogue hostage-taker may have been influenced by antisemitic Urdu sermons that YouTube has failed to remove from its platform.

Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a Briton who took four hostages at the Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville before being shot dead by the FBI, was reportedly obsessed with two hardline Pakistani clerics popular on YouTube.

Israr Ahmed has 2.7 million subscribers on the social media network and was particularly popular with Akram, according to the JC. On his videos, he reportedly called Jews “the ultimate source of evil [and] the biggest agents of Satan”, adding that they “control the banking system of the world.” In another video, entitled “History of the Jews”, Dr Ahmed claimed that Jews had been acting against humanity for over 2,000 years. “The name of Jews became an expletive,” he said. “They became akin to pigs.”

Interestingly, one YouTube user reportedly asked why English subtitles for the sermons were not provided, prompting another to reply: “I’m happy that there are no subtitles. If these are available with subtitles, this’ll be removed from here.”

Meanwhile, the cleric Tariq Jamil has claimed in a video to his nearly six million subscribers that Jews “distorted” the holy books, among other inflammatory remarks. Akram reportedly organised a “rock star” welcome to Mr Jamil, who leads the hardline Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat, when he visited Akram’s hometown of Blackburn in 2017. The local Tablighi mosque, Makki Masjid, had loudspeakers installed on the roof so that a crowd overflowing outside could hear his sermons.

According to Akram’s family, he joined Tablighi Jamaat and became a dedicated follower of is leader, Mr Jamil, in 2003. Within a year, he began adopting the harsh strictures of the sect, including growing a long beard and forcing his wife to wear a veil, against her wishes, according to reports. He also apparently began disappearing for months at a time in Pakistan and Britain. It is understood that Akram also raised funds for the group in Britain, a campaign of which Mr Jamil’s visit to Blackburn was part.

Akram was reportedly later banned from the Tablighi mosque after calling for jihad against Israel and the United States inside the mosque, as well as insulting the Gulf states who were warming ties with Israel. It is not believed that Akram had further engagement with Tablighi Jamaat after the ban.

A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said that the company was reviewing the videos and subscription channels highlighted by the JC. In 2019, YouTube updated its hate speech policy, leading to a significant increase in videos being removed from the platform. The guidelines state that antisemitism and hate speech are prohibited and that videos that breach the policy will be removed.

Previously, YouTube removed Urdu sermons by other figures after the JC reported them, but allowed the creators to continue to upload videos. The videos referenced the “Jewish lobby” and described Hitler as “an angel”. It is not known whether Akram watched those videos, but YouTube failed to remove the channels and continues to profit from them.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Scenarios like this make you wonder what exactly it takes for social media companies like YouTube to forgo a fraction of their profits by removing antisemites from their platforms. The substance of these racist sermons was apparently not enough for YouTube. Perhaps now, this evidence that the sermons may have incited Malik Faisal Akram to take Jews hostage in a synagogue will move the company to act. Or does it take actual dead Jews to persuade social media networks not to take the blood money that comes from broadcasting videos such as these? Government regulation of social media cannot come fast enough for the next victims of a social media user incited by those they watch or read online.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms.