Bristol City Councilor Abdul Malik of the Green Party has been suspended from his role as chair of Easton Jamia Masjid mosque while the UK’s Charity Commission reviews a post he shared on social media about the October 7 Hamas attack.
A Charity Commission spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that there is an ongoing regulatory compliance investigation into Easton Jamia Masjid to “assess concerns regarding a trustee’s personal use of social media” and that, as part of this case, “we can confirm that we have suspended Abdul Malik as a trustee.”
Malik – a prominent pro-Palestine figure in his party – announced the news on Facebook, stating that he was “confident that the process will conclude fairly,” and that “this is an administrative process, not a finding of wrongdoing.”
The possible three-year suspension relates to a post shared by Malik on October 13, 2023, which contained a clip of a Hamas spokesman describing the October 7 massacre as a “supremely defensive act” and saying that Israel was “an animal state… a cancer that should be eradicated.”
Malik initially denied sharing the post, later admitting to the fact.
His initial denial of responsibility
In February 2025, Malik, who is also a magistrate, was investigated by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO), which found that his actions “amounted to serious misconduct”.
It also found that “his initial denial of responsibility compounded the damage.”
At the time, Avon and Somerset Police told the Jewish Chronicle: “The material was reviewed by Counter Terrorism Policing’s Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) and Avon and Somerset Police’s crime assessment unit. Both determined that the post did not breach any legislation. The incident was also not felt to meet the threshold required to be recorded as a non-crime hate incident.”
A recent open letter of support for Malik similarly blamed “pressure from a prominent Zionist newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, renowned for targeting public figures advocating for Palestinian rights.”
Malik himself accused the JC of being “more obsessed with [him] than anyone else.”
Social media analysis
The Post analyzed Malik’s social media history for potentially problematic content relating to Israel.
Dating back 11 years, in July 2014, Malik shared a letter he had shared with Nick Clegg, then-deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats.
“The Israelis are bombing, using sophisticated F16s and laser-guided technology, drones, Apache helicopters using hellfire missiles, and they are protecting their cities from crude home-made Hamas rockets, using radar and the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. In contrast, what you have on the ground are Palestinians and their families fleeing their homes using donkey carts,” he wrote then. The letter was written during Operation Protective Edge. It diminishes the threat posed by Hamas by describing their rockets as “crude and home-made.”
“As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims are being blamed for their own misfortunes,” Malik continued. “The Israeli propaganda machine has persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics, and that Islam is incompatible with democracy.”
Fast forward to October 7, 2023, the day of Hamas’s massacre, Malik posted, “My heart aches today for the loss of so many innocent lives.”
He added, “This tragedy is a stark reminder of the ongoing injustices faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza. The historical context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, rooted in decades of tension and displacement, plays a significant role in this injustice.” He made no mention of the murder of Jews or Israelis or the taking of hostages.
A few weeks later, on October 20, 2023, Malik posted, “The Labour Party’s position that Hamas is solely responsible for impeding the possibility of peace in the region is a narrative that we, the Muslim community, view with concern.”
On the same day, he said that “characterizing Hamas without acknowledging the deeper complexities of the situation and offering unwavering support to Israel’s actions is a cause for concern.”
On December 3, 2023, Malik wrote to his MP Thangam Debbonaire: “As your constituent, I am asking for you to call on the government – and your own party – to support a permanent ceasefire now, as well as the revoking of all licenses for the export of weapons and military technology to Israel. More weapons only mean more suffering.”
On December 12, 2023, he sent a letter expressing concerns regarding Bristol City’s decision to light up its City Hall in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag.
“The gesture was intended as a symbol of solidarity following attacks by the Palestinian group Hamas, but many people in our city have found this to be upsetting and offensive, lighting the City Hall, our beacon of local democracy in the colous of the Israeli flag at a time when the Israeli regime was bombing Gaza was in my opinion a miscalculated gesture that has proven to be counterproductive,” he wrote.