Charity under formal investigation over Facebook video claiming 'f******* Jews' track smartphones

Ghulam Mustafa Trust, which works to alleviate poverty in Pakistan, placed antisemitic footage on Facebook page in June

Screengrabs from the video reportedly uploaded to Facebook by the charity

(YouTube)

A charity which posted a video on its social media page claiming “f***ing Jews” are tracking smartphones has been placed under formal investigation by the Charity Commission.

The Ghulam Mustafa Trust, a Rochdale-based group which works to alleviate poverty in Pakistan, placed the antisemitic footage on its Facebook page in June and was later ordered to remove it after a complaint from a monitoring group.

The video showed a man opening the back of a Samsung mobile phone while explaining that it contained technology used to track the device and remove photographs held on it.

A piece of plastic on the battery is then removed as the male says: “You should take that off because they are recording every photograph of yours, these f***ing Jews”. The removed item was in fact a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip used for tap-and-go services like Apple Pay,

The Charity Commission said its latest investigation followed the failure of the trust to comply with improvements ordered after its original inquiry into the footage.

In a statement, the regulator said: “We reviewed the post and concluded that the [video] material was completely inappropriate and raised serious regulatory concerns about the management and administration of the charity.”

The Commission said it had now opened a statutory inquiry after the trust failed to undertake an unspecified action ordered following an inspection in July. The investigation will look into the management and financial controls of the charity along with the conduct of its trustees.

The Ghulam Mustafa Trust did not respond requests from The Independent to comment. Speaking last month, a spokesman for the charity said: “Mistakes happen. Unfortunately it was with regret that this came to light on Facebook. Millions [of] people swear and use obscene language against other religions. This type of action should not be repeated against any religion.”