Police are being urged to investigate a British scout group over fears of extremism radicalising children after some of its members appeared in a “sickening” antisemitic video, the JC can reveal.
The troop – which is not part of The Scout Association – is based at a community centre run by a charity in West London.
The boys are seen in a video on Facebook on which the soundtrack features the repeated chant: “We cut the heads of the Jews from the right hand of Haider,” in an audio recording which is not sung by the scouts.
The footage was posted on the page of the Al-Amal Lebanese Community, which has been posting images of gatherings of the group known as the Islamic Message Scout Association for at least a decade.
Following the JC’s enquiries, Al-Amal Lebanese Community said the audio was a line of poetry about the Battle of Khaybar, a 7th-century confrontation between early Muslims and Jews. Muslim leader Ali ibn Abi Talib was said to have killed Jewish warrior Marhab ibn al-Harith with a strike to the head during the clash. In the context of Lebanon at war with Israel, the Al-Amal Lebanese Community suggested this line of poetry was about striking Israel and not Jews in general.
The community group also said the audio had been posted in error.
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The community group posted the video that featured the song and auto-generated captions on Facebook in July 2024 (Facebook)[Missing Credit]
The emergence of the video has renewed concerns about extremist Shia organisations running UK youth groups.
An investigation by the JC has revealed links between the mosque where the scouts meet and Iran-aligned individuals.
The government’s former independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney said: "Even in the current environment where Jew hatred is increasingly worn as a badge of pride, it is breathtaking to see an organisation openly broadcasting this song.
"This looks like comic Borat-style satire of gross antisemitism but sadly it appears to be reality in twenty-first century Britain.
"These deeply alarming and serious allegations underline the need for major investigation of Iranian exploitation of the UK charity sector and the major failings in the government's system of oversight that has allowed this problem to fester.”
The video, posted in July 2024 was filmed at the Al-Khoei Foundation, a charitable Islamic centre.
Played over images of boys packing boxes and a cleric delivering a sermon, a chant repeatedly declares in Arabic with an auto-generated subtitled English-language translation verified by the JC: “We cut the heads of the Jews from the right hand of Haider.”
Images shared online of the scout group show dozens of children, many of them primary school age, attending activities and ceremonies at the Al-Khoei Foundation.
The children wear typical scout uniforms. In addition to their neckerchiefs, the youngsters have a scout badge that bears a photograph of Musa al-Sadr, a Lebanese-Iranian Shia cleric and founder of the Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party and militia allied with Hezbollah.
In one image of the scouts, a young boy is pictured in military-style camouflage. In others, children are shown saluting, pictured beneath banners bearing the Amal logo or marching through central London wearing black bandanas inscribed with Arabic slogans.
The imagery closely mirrors that used by the Islamic Message Scouts Association in Lebanon, which operates as the youth wing of the Amal Movement. Amal combatants were engaged in fighting with Israel in November 2023.
The Lebanese youth movement appears to have posted in support of terrorism against Israel. Days after the October 7 attacks, the Islamic Message Scouts Association shared a video showing scouts standing on a burning Israeli flag, praising what it described as the “heroic resistance for purifying of Al-Aqsa from the incursions of Zionist settlers”.
While that organisation operates overseas, it appears that the group in London is effectively its UK branch. On a video reshared by the Al-Amal Lebanese Community in London, children – supposedly in Lebanon – are seen wearing headbands that state “my father is a martyr” commemorating Amal’s fallen on “martyr day".
The Al-Khoei Foundation where the UK scouts are based is a listed charity which has a prominent public profile and is involved in interfaith work. In 2018, the mosque erected a sukkah in partnership with the local Jewish community and in 2023 it sent a representative to attend the King’s coronation.
One of two directors listed on Companies House for Al-Khoei Limited is Mohsen Mousavi Khalkhali, 70.
He has been photographed at the foundation alongside British politicians and civil servants.
But he is also the director of the English output of HodHod TV, a Persian-language Shia children’s satellite television network. The English-language channel managed by Khalkhali was announced in 2014.
Analysis by the JC has established that the HodHod TV website is hosted on servers operated by Arvan Cloud, an Iranian technology company subject to an asset freeze in the UK and sanctioned by the EU and the United States.
The HodHod TV website was recently seized by the US authorities, with an FBI notice now displayed on the page.
Arvan Cloud has been cited by western governments for its role in supporting Iran’s censorship apparatus, including internet shutdowns. Its use indicates that HodHod TV relied on sanctioned Iranian technology.
Khalkhali’s involvement with HodHod TV is not the only link connecting him to institutions tied to the Islamic Republic.
The JC has also established that HodHod TV shares a London address with the Al-Bayt Institute, also known as the Ahlul Bayt Foundation. Planning documents list the property as being owned by a “Mr Shahrestani”.
The Al-Bayt Institute was established by Seyed Javad Shahrestani, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Shahrestani has been linked to senior figures in Iran’s propaganda apparatus and was photographed sitting next to Masoud Pezeshkian in an article published in August 2025.
According to the AhlulBayt News Agency, he met Mohammad Hossein Musapour, a representative of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and head of the Islamic Propaganda Coordination Council, also last August.
The website reported that Shahrestani “highlighted the activities of the Al-Bayt Institute and expressed readiness to increase collaboration” with the council.
Shahrestani is an associate of Khalkhali, with images from 2015 showing the pair on a trip to Iraq, accompanied by Ehsan Helmi, a previous director of HodHod TV in London.
Describing the video as “sickening,” shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for the police and Charity Commission to investigate.
He said: “This extremism and hatred hiding in our midst has no place in the UK and must be urgently eradicated.
“Those who advocate violence should be removed from the UK where they are not British citizens.”
Labour Friends of Israel chair Mark Sewards said the allegations were “very disturbing” and also called for action.
He said: “We know from the security services that Iran and the IRGC are involved in a campaign to spread antisemitism and radicalise young people in the UK. These allegations must be swiftly investigated by the police and the Charity Commission.”
A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We take very seriously any alleged links between a charity and extremism or terrorism. Such links are abhorrent, and corrosive to the trust on which the charitable sector depends. We are actively assessing concerns raised by the JC about Alulbayt Foundation and All-Khoei Benevolent Fund to determine any appropriate next steps for us as regulator.”
Responding to the story, the Al-Amal Lebanese Community said: “We are proud to follow in the tradition of Imam Sayyid Musa al-Sadr who spent his life encouraging unity between faiths and achieving resolutions through dialogue, and we make no apologies for our Lebanese Shi’a Muslim identity.”
A spokesperson for The Al-Khoei Foundation said it was unaware of the video found by the JC, adding: "Any suggestion that the Foundation 'supports' or is 'aligned with' the Islamic Republic of Iran is incorrect. We condemn antisemitism.
"Al-Khoei has no operational connection to HodHod TV, Arvan Cloud, or any alleged propaganda or state-linked network."
They added that the use of its premises by an external group or organisation did not constitute an endorsement of that group's views or activities.
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