Craig Murray

Murray speaking in 2007

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Craig Murray (1958–) is a former British diplomat and blogger who divides opinion. Murray is considered an expert on international affairs by his followers but is otherwise considered a conspiracy theorist with traces of antisemitism. He contributes entries to his own blog at CraigMurray.com but also for other fringe publications such as The Truth Seeker and has published a memoir, Murder in Samarkand (2006). This book was adapted by David Hare for BBC Radio Four, starring David Tennant as Murray.

Murray is a defender of Julian Assange and has some unorthodox views on sex. And he is himself the subject of conspiracy theories, which claim conspiracies of Jews or the British state are trying to silence him.

Born in Norfolk in 1958, the peak of his diplomatic career was his appointment in 2002 as British ambassador to Uzbekistan. He was removed from the job in 2004 and has claimed this was because he was of his criticism of human rights violations by the Uzbek government.

Ideas

Murray has argued that Britain's voting system is corrupt and fraudulent and election results are not to be trusted. He has raised concerns about the increasing use of postal votes.

Murray disputed whether Russia was responsible for the 2018 chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, England. Instead, he speculated Israel may be responsible and on Twitter suggested that the parliamentary group Labour Friends of Israel were involved in a cover-up to attribute blame to Russia.

Legal disputes

In 2007, his blog was shut down in the UK by lawyers for Uzbek business magnate and football fan Alisher Usmanov, and in 2008 he was the subject of legal action from "private security contractor" Tim Spicer over a book he was yet to publish.

In 2017, he was sued for libel by Jake Wallis Simons, then associate editor of the Daily Mail Online. The offending article was taken down but seems to have been connected with allegations of antisemitism in the British Labour Party. Anti-Israel (and possibly antisemitic) blog Rehmat's World claims this is part of an organised campaign against critics of Israel — presumably an international Jewish conspiracy (it isn't clear if Murray goes this far). The case was settled in November 2017 with a statement that "Mr Murray accepts that Dr Wallis Simons is not a liar, and Dr Wallis Simons accepts that Mr Murray is not an anti-Semite. They are both pleased to have resolved this dispute amicably."

Murray supports Scottish independence. It is claimed by devotees of Scottish Nationalist conspiracy theories that he is being targeted by the powers that be as part of a wider scheme to destroy the independence movement.

Murray was charged with contempt of court for material contained in his blogs in the run-up and during the trial of Alex Salmond, the former Scottish First Minister, for sexual assault and attempted rape in 2020. Salmond was acquitted. Murray was accused of trying to influence the jury via "jigsaw" identification of the complainants, i.e. providing sufficient information to allow the women to be identified. He was found guilty in 2021 and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment.

Antisemitism or anti-Zionism

Murray blames Israel for many things well beyond the oppression of the Palestinian people (see above), while a book collecting his writings in this area was entitled Zionism is Bullshit: Selected Speeches, Interviews and Writings: Volume 1 (which Murray claimed he was banned from advertising on Facebook). Because of this habit, he has been accused by sources other than Wallis Simons of associating with and defending anti-semites. (He was also inadvertently caught up in an antisemitism scandal when SNP MSP Sandra White retweeted something containing an antisemitic cartoon and a separate link to a Murray article but that does not reflect on his own opinions.)

Murray has said the use of term "antisemitic" has become overused as a slur or way of shutting down criticism of Israel, comparing attacks on critics of Israel to McCarthyism and calling Israel an "apartheid state". He has also defended Ken Livingstone against the allegations of anti-semitism.

Murray has used "Zionist" as an indiscriminate insult for his enemies, throwing the label at Christopher Hitchens, Nick Cohen and Melanie Phillips (in a 2011 blog post celebrating Christopher Hitchens' then-recent death).