Sheffield Link FM radio station in ‘jihadi’ chant trouble

The Sheffield-based Link FM community radio station is facing sanctions after broadcasting an Islamic chant which is believed to contain ‘Jihadi lyrics’ which promote terrorism.

The station was found to have committed two serious breaches of Ofcom's broadcasting code by playing the ‘Nasheed’ chant twice in 2020, with the regulator saying that the chant contained material likely to ‘encourage or incite the commission of crime or lead to disorder’.

In a report, Ofcom said: "Although this Nasheed didn't contain any direct call to violent action, we consider cumulative effect of lyrics and imagery was to condone, promote and actively encourage others to participate in violent acts as a form of devout religious expression and therefore amounted to an indirect call to action."

The Ofcom report did note that the Pakistan Muslim Centre had apologised for what it described as an ‘error’ and an ‘unfortunate incident’.

Link FM is the second Sheffield-based community radio station to be found in breach of Ofcom's code in recent years. In 2017, Imam FM was taken off air after it broadcast 25 hours of lectures by Anwar Al-Awlaki, a US-born radical Muslin cleric, killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.