Facebook Banned Fundraising Ad That Claimed Coronavirus is ‘Divine Justice’ From Allah

LONDON - FEBRUARY 03: Muslim demonstrators hold banners at the Danish Embassy on February
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Kurt Zindulka

A London based Islamic group, which purports to be a “human rights organisation”, has had an advertisement claiming the Chinese coronavirus is an act of revenge from Allah pulled from Facebook.

CAGE, a Muslim campaign group perhaps best known for calling ISIS executioner ‘Jihadi John’ a “beautiful” man, was using social media sites to raise £400,000 during Ramadan. The group had posted 16 adverts on Facebook for its campaign called ‘Reviving Divine Justice’, four of which were banned, including one with a video on coronavirus.

Facebook decided to remove the advertisements from the Islamist group because the video violated the Silicon Valley tech giant’s advertising policies, according to The Times. Facebook has said that it will remove any coronavirus material that it deems to be “misinformation and harmful content” during the pandemic.

Despite the advertisement being pulled, the Islamist coronavirus video still remains active on CAGE’s Facebook and Youtube pages.

The video, entitled “One deed that can change the world”, said that “The world is in crisis and no one seems to know how to stop it,” before adding: “Allah has warned us: ‘Whatever misfortune befalls you it is because of what your own hands have done.”

In response to reports of the video being taken down, CAGE said: “The once-Hitler supporting Daily Fail (Mail) and the Murdoch Times have coordinated smear pieces on CAGE today because they don’t want you to see THIS video we put on Facebook.”

“Also it’s ironic that in the midst of a national emergency, the highest Covid deaths in Europe and with the nation united in disgust at the incompetence of Boris and the breaking of the rules by his chief advisor — these racist rags decide to do the only thing they know to do in order to distract… Stoke fear and hatred of Muslims!” CAGE added.

CAGE has previously come under fire after they called for the “abolition” of all terrorism laws in the United Kingdom, following the arrest of their former general secretary under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

In 2017, Muhammad Rabbani was found guilty of obstructing police after he refused to divulge the passwords of his phone and computer to officers at Heathrow Airport. The group claimed the arrest was a result of racial profiling.

The group’s director of outreach, Moazzam Begg, was a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was released in 2005 following a pressure campaign from the British government despite objections from the Pentagon, which maintained that he was a dangerous terrorist.

The Islamist group has also been subject to widespread criticism after they shot to public prominence in 2015 when they defended the Islamic State executioner Jihadi John, saying that he was as an “extremely kind, gentle, beautiful young man”. A spokesman for the group later doubled down on the controversy when he explained that “the concept of jihad is an important concept.”

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

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