This Press and Journal story - Aberdeen ‘political activist’ Peter Dow guilty of sending racist tweets - may be hidden behind a paywall so I have taken the liberty of copying and pasting the text below so that everyone can read it free of charge. Text in pink ink is my own blog editorial comment.
Firstly, to insist that my tweets were neither "racist" nor illegal and that Sheriff Wallace has grossly miscarried justice - he caused a mistrial by refusing to hear the defence case in full, he falsely convicted me and he imposed a cruel fine of £740, which will take me 2 years to pay off at £30 per month, which is all I can afford to pay from my Universal Credit social security benefit.
P&J: Aberdeen ‘political activist’ Peter Dow guilty of sending racist tweets
Peter Dow sent a series of racist messages directed at a former First Minister, calling for mosques to be closed and Muslims deported.
They were meant as public political tweets, they were certainly not "racist" and were not intended as private messages to anyone. I have called for mosques to be closed and for imams to be deported but I have opposed a blanket deportation of all Muslims, because as of now my politics is much more selective about which Muslims I would or would not advise to deport, though I have noted that mass-deportation was once the policy of Spain, see Wikipedia Expulsion of the Moriscos and I have defended the human right of freedom to express "deport them all" rhetoric.
By Reporter December 18 2025, 11:30 am
Peter Dow was found guilty following trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. Image: DC Thomson
A self-described political activist and terrorism expert has been found guilty of sending racist tweets aimed at the former First Minister Humza Yousaf and others.
Peter Dow had attempted to defend himself in Aberdeen Sheriff Court over a series of messages he posted to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, last year.
They included calling for Muslims to be deported and branding Humza Yousaf a “P***”.
Not all Muslims. On multiple occasions in the trial I gave evidence that Malala Yousafsai was an example of a Pakistani and a Muslim in this country whom I love and would never wish to deport, so it is a shame that the P&J story misrepresents my defence.
But at Aberdeen Sheriff Court this week, the 65-year-old discovered he had lost the case and was fined £740.
Trial comes to end with guilty verdict
Dow, who previously told the court his interests included politics, science, and “the ladies”, repeatedly maintained his posts were political rhetoric.
He also urged the court to return his Dell desktop computer, which had been seized in the police raid, calling its absence a “crime against humanity” because he could no longer continue his scientific research.
His attempts to explain why he was distrustful of Pakistan and its government eventually led Sheriff Ian Wallace to remind Dow that his right to hold certain views was not why he was at court.
The sheriff would later remark it was “unfortunate” that the Edinburgh University degree holder made such explanations the core of his defence.
Former First Minister Humza Yousaf.
In sentencing him, Sheriff Wallace said: “It’s not about whether the accused is entitled to hold or express political views. It’s not about whether he’s entitled to criticise, for example, the politics of the government of Pakistan.
Wallace is a lying bastard as this case is precisely an attempt to stop me expressing my political criticisms of the political policies of certain Pakistani diaspora politicians like Humza Yousaf and Kaukab Stewart in their treacherous support of Islam, Islamic terrorism and in particular the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its lying officials, from consular diplomats to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, as Pakistan secretly supports Islamic terrorism.
“It’s unfortunate he’s made this the focus of his approach to this case.
No, it's unfortunate I was stuck with such an incompetent and malicious sheriff.
“This case is about whether the accused has committed the offence libelled on the specific occasions libelled.”
Sheriff Wallace went on to say that he was “satisfied” that Dow had behaved criminally by sending racially aggravated messages to Mr Yousaf and Kaukab Stewart.
There is nothing "racially aggravated" about the use of the word "Paki" as an abbreviation for "Pakistani", as I use the word.
He additionally found him guilty of a breach of the peace for a message he sent describing politicians as “surrender monkeys” alongside a hashtag which included the word P***.
I peacefully typed on a keyboard from my own home. I caused no "breach of the peace". The police smashing my door down, arresting me, ransacking my home, stealing my computer was the only "breach of the peace" and it is shameful to hide that truth.
Peter Dow led his own defence
The trial itself had been a protracted affair with Dow attempting to introduce video evidence of crimes committed by Muslims to the court, including a clip of what he said was a woman being stoned to death and footage of the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
One witness statement (David Fernandez) said he complained to the police because I was making comments against Muslims. The defence was entitled to rebut the witness statement/testimony and Wallace was wrong to forbid that in full measure.
One of the few clips that he was allowed to play was the introduction to a BBC documentary on Pakistan and its ties to the Taliban, which Dow used to explain why he held his views.
Peter Dow at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. Image: DC Thomson
Dow’s inflammatory messages were sent between February and June 2024 from his personal X account. It has about 170 followers.
The postings call for politicians he was at odds with to “f*** off to Gaza”, the deportation of Imams, the closure of mosques, and referred to Mr Yousaf as a “P*** s***-stirrer” alongside what had been described as “deliberately eye-catching” images intended to draw attention.
“This is a judgment that I’ve come to,” Dow said of Pakistan.
“I’m not prejudiced on a racial basis. It’s got nothing to do with race or colour.”
Dow, leading his own evidence, continued by branding Mr Yousaf’s relationship with Pakistan as “naïve” and suggested that the SNP politician was “privy to Pakistan’s secrets”.
This photograph of Yousaf meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minster was shown but my suggestion is that he, the Pakistani Prime Minister, was privy to Pakistan's secrets but that Yousaf was naïve.
He said: “I don’t believe Pakistan has been held properly to account for killing our soldiers – or helping.
“I’m using it specifically as an abbreviation for Pakistani. It’s like calling a British person a Brit.”
Kaukab Stewart Image: Russell Cheyne/PA Wire
Equalities minister Ms Stewart was also targeted by Dow.
His evidence in defence of racist messages aimed at her online included a screenshot of her Scottish Government profile, which states Ms Stewart was born in Pakistan.
I would never defend "racist" messages but defended my non-racist tweets using the word "Paki" variously for effect - as here in the phrase "pack of Paki lies" and in the "PAKI LIES" large typeface for superposition.
Dow said he used the P-word because it was shorter, and likened it to newspaper headlines.
Collage of selfies with black women
The trial would go on to include unsubstantiated claims by Dow, of Hollybank Place, Aberdeen, that he could have saved thousands of Scottish lives during the Covid pandemic by offering links to “published science documents” he had authored.
Those claims are substantiated elsewhere - Submission to the Scottish COVID-19 inquiry.
When queried by the sheriff on the veracity of the journals in which he was published, Dow revealed: “Well, I published them myself on my blog. As you know, I’m unemployed.
“[The work] sets a picture of me not being recognised for my talents.”
Dow then showed an image he titled “Peter Dow is not a racist”, which was a collage of selfies with black women.
This was the collage shown in court, although it does not appear in the P&J's story.
Noting that there were only black women in the images, some of which he met on dating websites, Dow lamented that there were no Asian women present.
“The point is, I have an open and welcoming attitude towards people of different colours. I am not racially prejudiced. As it happens, these are all mostly black women rather than Asian women, but if I can get an Asian girlfriend, I’ll be very happy,” he said.
Courtroom attack on BBC
Dow also used his time in court on Wednesday to go on to attack the BBC, which he blamed for “brainwashing” people.
The BBC, he claimed, was responsible for this by censoring the word P*** and that it was “really important” he win his court battle so others were free to use the word in future.
He told the court: “The BBC usually gives Pakistanis a free pass by beeping over the word P***.”
Kaukab Stewart was also a target for Dow. Image: PA
‘A good Muslim is going to volunteer to be a suicide bomber or a terrorist’
On Muslims, Dow said he feared a loosening of “checks and balances” as they came to be in positions of authority.
“The more Muslims we appoint as sheriffs, as prosecutors, as politicians making the law, then there’s going to be a process of weakening of those checks and balances,” he said.
“It’s not to do with the colour of skin, I don’t trust Muslims in authority because I’m worried about our country – not immediately, but over the years and decades ahead.
“It’s a horrific prospect.”
Bizarrely, Dow would go on to read a version of the Declaration of Arbroath, which promised to oppose “Muslim rule”.
Suicide bomber remarks
Queried on his post that said Muslims should be deported, Dow added “intelligent students” and those opposed to the Taliban would be welcomed.
He explained: “What my policy would be [is] to close the mosques, so that they wouldn’t feel they were welcome as Muslims. Their Muslimness wouldn’t be welcome.
But if academically good students can manage to do without a handy mosque then why not welcome such talent to Scotland?
“A good Muslim is going to volunteer to be a suicide bomber or a terrorist.”
A good Muslim does whatever he is told by an Imam, believing his reward will be in heaven.
The case called at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. Image: DC Thomson.
Defiant to the end
Late into Wednesday afternoon, the trial came to a close with Dow branding the fiscal depute in the case, Alan Townsend, a criminal and calling for him to be disbarred.
He also refused to ever change.
“I feel I’ve got to do these things,” he said.
“It’s my duty. I’m not going to change. I think I’ve got a duty to hold Pakistanis to account and I’m going to keep doing that. And if I think using the word P*** is appropriate, that’s what I’m going to do.
“I’ve got to do this. It’s my duty.
“I’ve tweeted the word P*** in the last year several times a day, many more times than I would have done. And the reason I’ve tweeted it so much, not to Scottish Parliament accounts, is because of the court case.
“So if this court case was a plan to stop me using the word P***, it’s backfired spectacularly because I’ve used it all over the place.”
As the room emptied, Dow could once more be heard asking Mr Townsend for the return of his desktop computer.
Well I suppose I could always appeal the verdict to the Sheriff Appeal Court.
Aye, right.😒
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