Revealed: radical Islamic cleric who sells ‘libido-boosting’ pills to run combat camp in the Peak District

Young men receive rigorous physical training at the Spiritual Warrior Camp (Photo: YouTube / Hussain Makke)[Missing Credit]

Earlier this year, Makke's visa to visit Australia was revoked after Sky News reported that he had hailed slain Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as one of the world’s “greatest freedom fighters” and celebrated the size of the crowd at his funeral – which the cleric also attended – as evidence that the “resistance” was “alive and well”.

Material obtained by research and advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and shared exclusively with the JC can now reveal that Makke trained under a senior Hezbollah figure at a seminary in Lebanon, and has openly mourned the IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and other Hezbollah fighters killed in combat.

Makke is set to run a physical and Islamic training camp for young British men from July 30 to August 3 in the Peak District.

The camp, known as the Spiritual Warrior Project and located at Darwin Lake in Derbyshire, offers “Olympic-level wrestling” alongside religious education by a pro-Khamenei cleric.

The course is focused on “God-centric masculinity” and “man psychology”. Applicants are asked how much they value “discipline” and “brotherhood”. Information about the course states: “Brotherhood is to trust your comrades – to know that you and your mission go further together than you could ever do by yourself. Spiritual Warriors live, eat and breathe brotherhood.”

Young men are taught combat skills at Makke's Islamic training camp (Photo: YouTube)[Missing Credit]

In one image of the course intake from 2024, dozens of bearded young men gather in branded t-shirts. Other promotional materials show men being taught physical combat skills.

As well as Makke, those attending receive instruction from Hassan Chami, a motivational speaker and founder of the Ramadan Suhoor Festival, an annual event that hosts thousands of people from all over America, and Sheikh Salman Zaarour, a pro-Khamenei Shia cleric who provides “faith-based psychological and spiritual mentorship” at the camps.

Sheikh Salman Zaarour lecturing young men at the Spiritual Warrior Camp (photo: YouTube)[Missing Credit]

An image of Zaarour at the Spiritual Warrior Project shows him standing above a fire at nightfall, guiding young men to “reflect on our destinies,” according to the caption.

An Instagram post shared by an account named Jafar Hammoud on October 7 2024, a year after the Hamas attack, features Zaarour with fellow students at a seminary in Lebanon. The post is captioned “war nights” and states “victory is near”.

In a separate programme called the “One-on-One King Programme”, Makke offers private mentoring to men and explores “the masculine archetypes – king, warrior, magician, lover,” tailored to overcome personal weakness and “maximise potential”.

Makke also sells oil-based products, including a pill to “boost libido” for customers embarking on the “spiritual warrior path”.

Another of Makke's courses claims to help attendees “eliminate the inner enemy” that compels young men to consume pornography.

As well as combating men's urge to consume pornography, Makke sells an oil that he claims helps to boost libido (photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

But Makke’s influence is not limited to his courses. He is a regular fixture at AhlulBayt societies at British universities, including the University of Oxford, and led scores of students from campuses across the country on a hike in the Brecon Beacons last November.

Online, he regularly shares clips of his sermons, as well as advice to young men. In eulogising posts about several members of proscribed terror group Hezbollah, he has pushed pro-Hezbollah ideology.

Makke posted about attending an event held by the Oxford University AhlulBayt Islamic Society (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

The military wing of the Iran-backed Lebanese group has been proscribed in the UK under counter-terror laws since 2008, and its political wing was banned in 2019.

Makke’s legal team – the same lawyers who represented anti-Zionist academic David Miller – told the JC that their client was not a member of nor had he provided support to any proscribed organisation.

Makke has shared dozens of posts in support of Hezbollah members. In an Instagram post, he eulogised Sheikh Ali Abu Raya, a senior Hezbollah cleric who taught at his seminary. Makke described Raya as his “dear teacher and leader” and said his former teacher died a “martyr on the path to al-Quds” [Jerusalem].

“My eyes tear as I write this for you,” Makke wrote. “Since the first year of our time in the seminary, you have been a guide for my brothers and I. It was you who told me I was ready to begin my propagation journey in 2015.”

Iranian state-aligned media described Raya as “one of the leaders of Hezbollah”. Israeli outlets reported he was killed in September 2024 alongside three other Hezbollah commanders.

Makke crouching next to a picture and grave of the Hezbollah soldier, Mohamed Balbaaki (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

Makke was also friends with a British national who was killed fighting for Hezbollah. He shared images with Mohamed Baalbaki, a Brit killed in action fighting for Hezbollah. A photo on Makke’s social media shows him crouching at Baalbaki’s grave, which bears the militant’s image in full Hezbollah uniform, surrounded by rose petals, and the caption “I miss you forever.” Other posts show Baalbaki’s corpse wrapped in a green burial shroud.

After Baalbaki’s death, Makke shared more images of Baalbaki. In one post shared by another Instagram user, they were photographed with Reza John Vedadi, an influencer who, as previously reported by the JC, raised funds for Hezbollah families and praised the terror group’s “brave men”. Vedadi, who has appeared on Iranian state TV and spoken at UK universities, also eulogised the “Butcher of Tehran” Ebrahim Raisi as a “martyr”.

Makke spoke at a vigil for Baalbaki at Imam Hussain Mosque in Brondesbury, north-west London.

In another post, Makke honoured the death of senior Hezbollah militant, Sheikh Hassan Al-Khansa, whom he described as an “old friend” and fellow student of the seminary. Images of Al-Khansa show the Hezbollah member speaking at a podium draped in the logo of Hezbollah. Makke descried Al- Khansa as a “shaheed on the path of al-Quds”.

Makke’s Instagram story honoured the death of his “fellow student” Sheikh Ahmad Abboud, describing him as a “shaheed on the path of al-Quds” (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

In another eulogy to a member of Hezbollah and a fellow seminary student, he posted an image of Sheikh Ahmad Abboud. Abboud was killed in an airstrike in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon, the centre of Hezbollah’s operations. Makke said his old friend was a “shaheed on the path of al-Quds”.

He used the same language when he described the death of Mustafa Zulfiqar Shaheed, another seminary peer who was killed during the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Makke posted on Instagram: “Zulfigar was the gatekeeper at our Hawza [seminary]. He was an everyday brother, one of the sweetest and kindest souls, a common quality of these shuhada [martyrs]”.

Makke said he had “three brothers since last weekend” but, although he said life “will always be heavy until we are reunited,” he added that he “never experienced as much beauty and spirituality as these heavy and extremely excruciating days and nights.”

Makke also posted numerous photographs of Hezbollah secretary-general Nasrallah. After the terror leader was killed, Makke shared an old family photograph of Nasrallah with a young boy and the caption, “I'm staying on this ship even if I'm the last one left. I promise. I miss you so much tonight. Goodnight my Sayed.”

The influencer said he would choose the terror leader over his daughter in one post shared on Instagram after Nasrallah's death (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

  

Makke flooded Instagram with tributes to the slain Hezbollah chief. In repeated references to the Hezbollah leader as “my Sayed”, he even said he would have “undoubtedly chosen” Nasrallah “over my own daughter.”

In another post, he said he had dreamed that Nasrallah was still alive: “I felt relief for a few seconds and experienced what it was like being in a world with you in it again.”

In another, he wrote: “Even when I found out about new friends passing into the next world as heroes... I always end the night with your face my beloved."

Makke attended Nasrallah’s funeral, where other British nationals, including Miller, were present. He told Press TV that Nasrallah was “a person who is regarded by much of the world as its greatest freedom fighter of the last century”. The Australian government revoked his visa for a speaking tour days after these comments on the Hezbollah leader, citing security concerns.

On the eve of the funeral in Lebanon, Makke hosted an event at Nasrallah’s deathplace and posted on Instagram that he was “in search of your scent my sayed.”

Makke posted on social media that he was in Lebanon searching for the "scent" of Nasrallah after his death (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

In other posts shared the day after Nasrallah was killed, Makke said, “Martyrdom is life. Martyrdom is awakening.”

A separate post suggested that the death of Nasrallah would increase “the ranks of the resistance in Lebanon.

“The blood of these martyrs will form new fuel for the fire of resistance, which will not die down until the liberation of Palestine and all occupied Arab lands,” the post read.

An image shared by Makke on his Instagram story featuring Nasrallah with a young boy and the caption "I miss you so much tonight. Goodnight my Sayed" (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

Another post on Makke’s Instagram account appeared to reference Nasrallah’s rhetoric of Israel being weaker than a “spider's web.” The post, which depicted Makke’s foot stamping down over an IDF soldier, was captioned with a web and a spider emoji.

Makke’s record of praising terror figures spans years. After the US drone strike on Soleimani in January 2020, he posted a photo of himself saluting in front of a mosque and urged his followers to “bathe in the pain and cry all day and all night".

Another Instagram post of Makke mourning Nasrallah (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

Referencing Ayatollah Khomeini – architect of Iran’s 1979 revolution and responsible for the execution of thousands – Makke wrote: “With every year that passes, Imam Khomeini’s words ring truer and truer.

“We are never allowed to actually speak our minds,” he wrote. “If we try to, we are labelled terrorist sympathisers at best. We're forced to watch the media around us convince us that we're the bad guy, and that the bad guy is actually the good guy... Then they kill our people, and our symbols.”

More recently, after the killing of Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, Makke posted an a shot of the last moments of Sinwar with the caption: “You cannot kill an idea.”

Makke shared an Instagram story of what appeared to be an image of Nasrallah in a photo frame (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]

Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at Uani, said of the story: “This represents a serious failure by UK regulatory and security bodies. How is it that a cleric with publicly documented associations to Hezbollah – a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK – is able to host so-called Islamist ‘warrior camps’ for young British Muslim men, with no evident oversight? These gatherings have reportedly taken place for years without scrutiny.

“Authorities would not hesitate to act if this individual had expressed support for ISIS, so why the inaction when it comes to Hezbollah – another banned terrorist group? This cleric has openly propagated Hezbollah’s ideology and is known to have travelled to Lebanon to attend the funeral of Hezbollah’s leader – a UK-designated terrorist.

“These activities are taking place as the Iranian regime and its proxies intensify efforts to nurture homegrown radicalisation and antisemitism in the UK. The authorities must intervene and take robust action where necessary. But sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Iranian regime-linked extremism in the UK remains a glaring blind spot for the regulatory bodies. Parliament must now intervene and hold those responsible to account. This oversight has been going on for far too long.”

In response to the JC’s story, a spokesperson from a group called the Left Legal Fighting Fund shared a comment from the Spiritual Warrior Project: “The intelligent and sophisticated young men who attend Spiritual Warrior learn to develop God-centric masculinity through a holistic curriculum that combines physical training, business coaching and Islamic scholarship, strengthening brotherhood, faith and resilience.”

The legal group also shared a response from Makke which claimed: “The Jewish Chronicle is an asset of a hostile foreign regime. Neither I nor anyone else involved in the Spiritual Warrior Project will take lectures from an institution whose purpose is to radicalise British Jewry to facilitate genocide in the Levant.

“The focus of all British authorities should be on tracking, capturing and imprisoning homegrown Jewish extremists who have served, or continue to serve, in the genocidal Israeli military.”