PREACHER Zakir Naik’s satellite channel, Peace TV, has been found guilty of hate speech by the UK’s broadcasting regulator, and may see its licence revoked.

Free Malaysia Today, citing a report by Ofcom last month, said four of the five Peace TV programmes investigated, following complaints on homophobia and criminal incitement, were in breach of the broadcasting code.

Two of the breaches involved the channel’s Urdu and English editions, and may be punishable with “statutory sanctions”, said the commission.

Besides hate speech, said FMT, other violations include incitement to crime and abusive treatment.

The four shows were aired between November 2017 and March last year.

The Urdu-language “Kitaab-ut-Tawheed” programme featured discussions on the works of Wahhabism founder Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. In one episode, speaker Shaikh Ashfaque Salafi voiced support for the beheading of magicians.

Club TV Ltd, Peace TV’s licensee in the UK, has defended the show.

“The programme is not about Harry Houdini, Paul Daniels, David Blaine, or other entertainers performing magic tricks for money or fun. It is about black magic, witchcraft, sorcery and enchantment, as viewers will understand,” it said in a defence submitted to Ofcom.

Meanwhile, the “Strengthening Your Family” programme saw homosexuals being compared to pigs.

“Here are two human beings… trying to justify something that even animals don’t do. Subhanallah, worse than animals,” presenter Imam Qasim Khan was quoted as saying in the Ofcom report.

“Human beings can be worse than animals. At least animals have the dignity of confining their passion, their sexual passion, to the opposite gender.

“Homosexual Baptists, homosexual Methodists, homosexual Catholics, homosexual Jewish people, and embarrassingly, homosexual Muslims. That’s insane. What are we going to do about it?”

To this, Club TV said the show was directed at Muslims “with a specific emphasis on teaching how to live a religiously observant life in line with the scriptures”, and so, it was likely that viewers expected the speaker to hold strong views against homosexuality.

Ofcom, meanwhile, said it has no intention of curbing any religious figure’s right to free speech.

“However, when transmitting materials of this nature, broadcasters must comply with all the relevant rules in the code, including Rule 3.1 (prohibition on materials likely to incite crime), Rule 3.2 (hate speech must be justified by the context) and Rule 3.3 (materials that contain the abusive or derogatory treatment of individuals, groups, religions or communities must not be included on television).”

Peace TV is broadcast from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

The Mumbai-born Zakir has caused a firestorm in Malaysia, where he holds permanent resident status, over his comments on the country’s Hindus and Chinese.

Besides being banned from giving public talks nationwide, police are investigating him under Section 504 of the Penal Code, for insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

Zakir faces up to two years in prison, or a fine, or both, upon conviction.

The televangelist is also wanted in his home country of India for money-laundering and terrorism-related charges. – August 22, 2019.