According to the report, entitled “Tehran calling: The Iranian threat to the UK” by Policy Exchange, the Republic of Iran has spent years “curating a politico-religious infrastructure in Britain” at the Islamic Centre of England (ICEL). The organization is a registered charity in the UK that operates out of a converted movie theater in Maida Vale.
The study claims that Iran is using ICEL as a base from which to “undermine our values and impose blasphemy codes,” and alleges that the charity’s director is appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader.
The study said that the charity “is not merely some dry, arid religious institution,” and instead “sits at the centre of a substantial network of Iranian influence operations within this country.”
According to the report, ICEL, which claims to advance education about Islam and provide social and religious welfare support, is the focus of a statutory inquiry by the UK Charity Commission.
An investigation began in November 2022 after the charity was sent an official warning in 2020 for holding an event eulogizing Iranian military commander and terrorist General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike and was subject to sanctions by the UK.
The report stated that senior clerics loyal to the Iranian regime traveled freely between Tehran and London and that over 100 visas were given to the radical clerics between 2005 and 2022.
The watchdog group also blamed MI5 for allegedly abandoning its “core task” of counter-subversion while Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, is trying 'to influence political, religious, educational or cultural organisations, or shape contemporary protest movements, to its own ends.”
The report alleges that Iran “may be seeking to influence British Muslims, and that it may be someone's job to stop this, has not been openly articulated by the Security Service,” and urged the Home Secretary to order the Home Office and Security Service to combat the terrorist regime’s effort in the UK.
Britain was among the countries that aided Israel in shooting down over 300 Iranian missiles and drone launched at the Jewish state on Sunday.
