Facebook bans adverts from Muslim campaign group Cage which claim coronavirus is a punishment from god
by Joe Middleton For Mailonline- Cage has been using Facebook and YouTube to raise £400k during Ramadan
- Facebook data shows the group ran 16 adverts, four of which have been banned
- The advocacy group has previously been accused of apologising for terrorism
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Facebook has banned advertisements from a campaign group who has claimed that coronavirus is a punishment from god.
London-based Cage have been using Facebook and YouTube to raise £400,000 during Ramadan, as reported by The Times.
The advocacy group ran 16 adverts as part of its campaign called Reviving Divine Justice, but four were banned, including one on coronavirus, launched on April 22.
The video that references the deadly pandemic is called 'One deed that can change the world' and opens with a news clip showing hospital staff working on a patients, as a journalist says 'they are fighting a war here, they are losing.'
It then switches to an image of the world and a voiceover says 'the world is in crisis and no one seems to know how to stop it.'
The person adds: 'While we exhaust ourselves in finding a cure...isn't it time that we also reflect?'
'Isn't it time we search for the roots of our problems.'
The video adds that 'Allah has his ways which he has informed us about. They do not change, so pay attention!
'Allah has warned us: 'Whatever misfortune befalls you it is because of what your own hands have done'.'
It also says that 'Allah will not change our condition until we change what is within ourselves.'
The video is available to view on the Cage's YouTube account.
What is CAGE, the controversial advocacy group?
The London-based organisation claims to be an advocacy group for 'victims of the War on Terror', but has been accused of apologising for terrorism.
Most notoriously, its director Asim Qureshi defended Mohammed Emwazi as a 'beautiful young man' shortly after he was identified as the ISIS executioner Jihadi John.
A Daily Mail investigation in 2016 found it had been targeting young Muslims with campus speeches.
It included calls for students to sabotage the government's anti-terror strategy Prevent.
The organisation's outreach director Moazzam Begg spoke on at least 11 separate occasions last term.
In a series of inflammatory lectures, he has told impressionable young Muslims that they are being treated in a similar way to Jews under the Nazis.
He also claimed Western reaction to the Paris terror attacks was disproportionate – because, he said there were 'no children reported killed' – and spoke dismissively of the deaths of only a 'handful' of Western hostages beheaded by IS.
At the time former Home Secretary Theresa May said universities should not be allowing such 'damaging, extremist rhetoric' to go unchallenged.
The campaign group - that claims it works to empower communities impacted by the 'War on Terror' - has attracted controversy and previously been accused of apologising for terrorism.
Most notoriously, its director Asim Qureshi defended Mohammed Emwazi as a 'beautiful young man' shortly after he was identified as the ISIS executioner Jihadi John.
Emwazi took part in the barbaric beheadings of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and US humanitarian worker Peter Kassig.
Emwazi was nicknamed Jihadi John after appearing in beheading videos showing the hostages released by ISIS.
He was the leader of the gang of jihadis nicknamed 'The Beatles'. Alexanda Kotey, Shafee El-Sheikh and Aine Davies were the other members of the terrorist cell.
At the time Boris Johnson called Cage 'apologists for terror' and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond suggested the organisation and others like it bore a 'huge burden of responsibility' for the actions of terrorists such as Emwazi.
A Daily Mail investigation in 2016 found it had been targeting young Muslims with campus speeches.
It included calls for students to sabotage the government's anti-terror strategy Prevent.
The organisation's outreach director Moazzam Begg spoke on at least 11 separate occasions last term.
In a series of inflammatory lectures, he has told impressionable young Muslims that they are being treated in a similar way to Jews under the Nazis.
He also claimed Western reaction to the Paris terror attacks was disproportionate – because, he said there were 'no children reported killed' – and spoke dismissively of the deaths of only a 'handful' of Western hostages beheaded by ISIS.
Muhammad Rabbani, Managing Director of Cage, said: 'Facebook routinely rejects ads including those by the Conservative Party so this article is a desperate non-story designed to stoke hate against Muslims.
'CAGE has consistently challenged torture and discrimination through the proud support of thousands of donors.'