A UK High Court judge has dismissed a libel claim brought by Islamic activist Mohammed Hijab against commentator Douglas Murray and The Spectator, concluding that Murray's article was "substantially true" and did not cause "serious harm" to Hijab's reputation.

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Hijab launched legal action over a 2022 opinion piece accusing him of fuelling racial tensions by appearing in Leicester during violent clashes between Hindu and Muslim communities. The article alleged Hijab "cropp[ed] up in Leicester to whip up his followers".

In his judgment, Justice Johnson found that Hijab lied on significant issues and his evidence is "worthless". He ruled that Hijab’s actions and rhetoric had actively “exacerbated the tensions that had spilled over into serious public disorder”.

Hijab had travelled to Leicester and delivered a speech to a group of masked Muslim men, stating, “What a humiliation and pathetic thing for them to be reincarnated into some pathetic weak cowardly people like that.” He argued in court that his comment was aimed solely at Hindutva nationalists, not all Hindus. But Johnson rejected this claim.

Paragraph 43, describing ⁦@mohammed_hijab as a witness⁩ is especially interesting. pic.twitter.com/tZsZsDw2nx

— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) August 5, 2025

“The reality is that those who subscribe to the Hindutva ideology are overwhelmingly Hindu,” the judge said. He added that the reincarnation comment was “a rhetorical device intended to inflame sectarian tensions by inviting ridicule of a central tenet of Hinduism.”

The court heard further evidence of Hijab’s past conduct, including a 2021 appearance in Golders Green. There, Johnson found Hijab acted “grossly offensive and disingenuous” by confronting Jewish people on Shabbat, using Holocaust imagery and referring to them as "Zionists" without justification.

The judge said Hijab “lied” about incidents at both Golders Green and a protest near the Israeli embassy, where Hijab threatened to kill "dogs". Johnson said, “The claimant had no basis for his inflammatory threats to kill dogs, or to suggest that dogs had been brought to the event as a provocation by Zionists.”

Hijab’s claimed financial losses were also dismissed as lacking credible evidence. The judge said the supposed confirmation messages from charities “have the appearance of being contrived for the purpose of these proceedings”.

Representing Murray, Patron Law stated: “The 2022 article meant and that it was substantially true to say that: ‘[Hijab] is a street agitator who has whipped up a mob on London’s streets, addressed an anti-Israel protest in inflammatory terms, and exacerbated frayed tensions...’”

Hijab says he intends to appeal, telling the Jewish Chronicle: “The court accepted that the article was defamatory... but dismissed the claim solely on the basis that ‘serious harm’ was not proven, despite clear, unchallenged evidence, including metadata, of reputational and financial loss.”