An investigation has been launched by the Charity Commission after videos circulated online of antisemitic speeches being given to UK students by Iranian generals.
Two of the videos show talks by members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) talking about an apocalyptic war on Jews.
It comes as some MPs have voiced concern the IRGC is attempting to radicalise British Muslims.
The Charity Commission, which has the power to examine, sanction or close down charities which breach the regulations, has now launched an investigation into the Al-Tawheed (TUCF) Charitable Trust, which hosted talks at the Kanoon Towhid Islamic centre in Hammersmith, west London.
The Kanoon Towhid Islamic centre in Hammersmith, west London.
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Three videos were recorded in 2020 and 2021, two were live-streamed speeches by former and active IRGC commanders.
The other was an in-person event inside the Kanoon Towhid Islamic centre commemorating Iran’s top military commander Gen Qasem Soleimani who was killed in 2020 in an American drone strike. There was also chants of “death to Israel”.
Al-Tawheed (TUCF) Charitable Trust was already being investigated by the Charity Commission after reports of the event honouring Gen Soleimani, who was sanctioned by the UK for his links to terrorism.
Professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews Ali Ansari said the talks reflected: “an attempt to encourage disruption, discontent, and basically undermine the stability of Western society, and what we need is a much more robust response to it”.
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Former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani
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One talk from September 2020 showed IRGC commander Hossein Yekta who said universities had become “the battlefront” and urged the students listening to become “soft-war officers”.
Another online talk from January 2021 featured former IRGC commander Gen Saeed Ghasemi who glorified the death of Gen Soleimani and falsely claimed the Holocaust was “a lie and a fake”.
He also described an apocalyptic war that the British students could join to “bring an end to the life of the oppressors and occupiers, Zionists and Jews across the world”.
In the video, he said: “God willing, myself and you good students in Europe will be written in the beautiful list of the soldiers of the resistance from tonight.”
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) walk along a road to the holy mosque of Jamkaran
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The Al-Tawheed (TUCF) Charitable Trust, which runs the Kanoon Towhid centre, was contacted for comment by GB News but did not respond.
A government spokesperson told the BBC: “We have sanctioned more than 350 Iranian individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in its entirety.”
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Alicia Kearns MP called the talks a “brazen act of radicalisation.”
She said: “It makes me really worried about the state of our society, everyone should be horrified by what they’re seeing in those videos. It’s division, it’s hatred. It’s inciting violence, potentially it’s incredibly serious.”
