Muslim media analyst who advises BBC on coverage of Islam apologises for sharing extract from antisemite Gilad Atzmon’s book

A Muslim media analyst who advises the BBC on coverage of Islam has reportedly apologised for sharing an extract from a book by the antisemite Gilad Atzmon.

Faisal Hanif, who words at the Centre for Media Monitoring, which is affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain and has advised the BBC on its coverage of Islam, shared an extract from Mr Atzmon’s book, Being in Time, which has been described as “profoundly antisemitic”. The extract itself did not contain antisemitic passages.

Mr Hanif apologised for sharing the post, admitting that it was an error “both professionally and personally to fail to check Mr Atzmon’s wider views.”

He said: “I stand opposed to all forms of racism including antisemitism and Islamophobia. I came across a blog post by Gilad Atzmon which was clearly not antisemitic and was comparing right and left ideology when I was researching the corrosive impact of the far right. While I took the blog post at face value at the time, I was unaware that Gilad Atzmon himself was profoundly antisemitic.”

Mr Atzmon is an antisemite who has reportedly blamed the Grenfell Tower tragedy on “Jerusalemites” as well as reportedly telling university students that “the Jews were expelled from Germany for misbehaving.” He is not shy about his antisemitism, telling a Jewish Twitter user in 2014: “I am not a Jew any more. I indeed despise the Jew in me (whatever is left). I absolutely detest the Jew in you.”

At one stage, Mr Atzmon was forced to make a humiliating apology to Campaign Against Antisemitism following defamation proceedings, and Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully pressured venues not to feature Mr Atzmon due to his record of antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched a new weekly podcast. New episodes of Podcast Against Antisemitism are available every Thursday and can be streamed here or downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.