A RADIO station faces being taken off air after it broadcast a Jihadi call to arms.
Sheffield-based Link FM played a chant used by Al Qaeda and IS to recruit fanatics for holy war.
Sheffield-based Link FM faces being taken off air after it broadcast a Jihadi call to arms Credit: Pexels
Its lyrics call upon "soldiers of Allah" to "crush our enemies" and celebrates "martyrdom" as a glorious victory.
The chant - known as a nasheed - was played during Link FM's breakfast show on December 16 and 22 last year.
Ofcom launched an investigation after listeners complained that it "promoted terrorism" and contained "Jihadi lyrics".
It found: "We considered this Nasheed to be promoting a narrative closely associated with propaganda used by extremist organisations to recruit members.
"This Nasheed would have been understood by Arabic speaking listeners as being an implicit call to action to encourage people to join a form of violent Jihad.
"We consider the 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."
'JIHADI LYRICS'
Ofcom said the radio station was in breach of broadcasting standards and is now considering statutory sanctions against it.
The sanctions include a correction to be aired or a financial penalty. They could even revoke its licence and shut it down for good.
The breakfast show's presenter said she did not speak Arabic and did not understand the chant before playing it.
Nor was it vetted, the Ofcom investigation found. She said she was "extremely sorry and horrified".
In a letter she added: "I sincerely apologise and feel quite embarrassed about the reputational damage to the station and myself this has caused."
The Pakistan Muslim Centre - which owns the radio station's licence - said it "wholeheartedly apologised for the error".
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It described the broadcast as an "unfortunate incident... and one we hope not to repeat again in the future".
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.
Ofcom said the radio station was in breach of broadcasting standards and is now considering statutory sanctions against it Credit: Alamy
Shocking video shows jihadis training to slaughter Westerners alongside same fanatics behind the Bali Bombings that killed 200