British Muslim influencer Mohammed Hijab, known for his anti-Israel political activism, is suing Zionist political commentator Douglas Murray for defamation, a Thursday report from The Jewish Chronicle revealed.
The cause for Hijab's lawsuit is a column piece penned by Murray over two years ago in the British magazine The Spectator, which is also being sued by Hijab.
Murray is an associate editor of the magazine, according to their website, and his column accused Hijab of "whipping up a mob on the streets of London" and making discriminatory remarks on Hindu people, quoting Hijab saying that they are "ridiculous people, not least because of their belief in reincarnation" and that they "must live in fear because they have been reincarnated as such pathetic, weak cowardly people." Hijab's lawyers argued that Murray's comments were incorrect, saying that the influencer was referring to Hindutva, an “extremist Hindu supremacist ideology” and not Hinduism as a whole, the Chronicle reported.
Hijab's statements were made during the Leicester unrest two years ago when there were heightened tensions between Muslims and Hindus in the United Kingdom, including protests and riots.
Murray's comments caused distress, humiliation, lawyers claim
Of Murray's entire column, only two paragraphs mention Hijab directly, yet he says that the allegations that piece makes against him have "damaged his reputation" and caused him "to suffer distress, humiliation, embarrassment, hurt and injury to his feelings," the Chronicle report notes, while also citing his lawyers alleging the Muslim influencer lost income as a result of the allegations.
Murray's lawyers, in response, argue that Hijab's reputation is scrutinized already as a political figure who engages in public debates, the report added.
His lawyers also highlighted Hijab standing with a billboard in 2021 containing images of the Holocaust interspersed with photographs from the Israel-Gaza conflict of that year and asked specifically Jewish passers-by their opinions on Israel during Shabbat.